First Legion
by The Scribe of Stories
Summary: Percy Jackson has no clue of who he is except for his name and Riptide. He learns that being a Roman is severely different from being a Greek. "Your story will be very interesting, Percy Jackson. I do love tragedies." NO FLAMES. ON POSSIBLE/INDEFINITE HIATUS
1. I: In Which It Begins

**********Hey ya'll! I've decided to rejoin the PJO community again and you can thank _The Lost Hero_ for that. After a few weeks of delaying (Blame NaNoWriMo) of reading _The Lost Hero_ I finally finished it and though it was pretty good. it inspired me to do this oneshot of my version of _The Son of Neptune_. It's a one shot since I'm horrible at updating) it might become more if you guys review and stuff!** -The Scribe of Stories 

* * *

_**Chapter I: In Which It Begins**_

Percy groaned his head felt like it was on fire. Something at the back of his mind told him he had felt this way before. He tried to stand up and a wave of nausea slammed into him.

His vision cleared enough to allow him to see his surroundings, which didn't offer much detail anyways. He was in the middle of a clearing in the field; the grass was a bit dry, it was in the middle of the night. He saw some stars in the sky; there was one constellation that he vaguely recognized. As if it was on the tip of his tongue, it irritated him to no end.

After a few minutes, he felt better enough to try to speak. Percy's tongue felt like sand. "Whe-where am I?" Percy tried to recall where he was last, it made his head hurt.

Percy only took a few steps before a girl with chocolate brown; shoulder-length hair had a sword against his throat. Percy was deeply confused but he wasn't scared of the girl. Not yet, at least. Unconsciously, Percy felt his hand go to his pants pocket.

The girl scowled, her grey eyes flashing. "Who are you?"

Percy opened his mouth, and then closed it. Who was he? All he remembered that his name was Percy. He figured that it wouldn't matter to the girl anyways. "I'm Percy…" He trailed off.

The blade pushed harder into his throat but nothing happened. Percy didn't feel the blade; in fact, if he hadn't looked down he probably wouldn't have known the girl was holding a sword. "Percy who?"

He dared a shrug; an instinct told him that the girl could become very dangerous. "Just Percy, I guess."

The girl raised an eyebrow. "Why are you here and how did you get here?"

Percy sighed; his hand was holding something in his pocket. He felt oddly comforted with that in his hand. "I really don't know. Can't you tell me?"

The girl's face went from wary to suspicious in an instant. She still didn't lower the blade. "We're in California."

Percy's mind jolted like a shock when the girl mentioned California. "California?"

"Yes," the girl snapped. "Didn't you hear me? Now, answer the other question before I chop you to pieces."

Percy felt confident that the girl couldn't chop him to pieces. "I don't know how I got here, I got here. I just woke up here."

Something about the way he acted seemed to convince the girl. Once the blade was away from his neck, he took a chance to look at her. She was just a few inches shorter than he was, her hair fitted into a tight ponytail and she wore some type of armour that he vaguely recognized. He saw a glimpse of a purple shirt underneath.

The girl muttered to herself, "Why didn't Lupa sense you?"

Percy couldn't help but ask, "Lupa?"

The girl gave a quick, suspicious glance at him. "Someone you don't need to know yet. Follow me." She pulled at Percy's shirt and he stumbled behind her. "Hazel! You and the others come out. He seems clean."

Percy's eyes widened slightly when he saw seven other teenagers dressed similarly as the girl. Two of them were girls and the other five were boys. They all looked intimidating. The girl with red hair was holding a dagger; the others were holding swords that looked like they were made of gold. _Why would they have gold swords?_ He felt like that it was wrong.

The redhead glared at him, her eyes were brown. "Lupa will punish you if you bring him to camp, Reyna. And she will kill him."

Reyna shrugged and shoved Percy down the hill. Percy instantly wanted to turn around so that 'Reyna' and 'Hazel' didn't have to face his back. He clutched the item in his pocket tighter; it felt like a pen. "If Lupa kills him, then he dies. He must be a _Videns patet _or an unlucky mortal."

'Hazel' rolled her eyes, "Fine. Just don't expect the punishment to be easy. Lupa's been acting strange since-"

Something stopped 'Hazel' from continuing. Percy became curious but didn't dare turn around.

After a few minutes of walking, they had arrived at a huge fort. The size of it impressed was a huge ditch that seemed to surround the structure. Twelve watchtowers were placed strategically around it. The walls were made of a white grey stone and were about twenty-five feet tall, according to Percy's estimations. They glowed faintly with light.

Once they were about ten yards away from the fort, He saw that they had a gold and wooden drawbridge gate. Again, what was with the gold? That nagging feeling that he was missing something very important returned. 'Reyna' held her sword and made the sword flash against one of the lights. Almost instantly, the gate began to lower, followed by a few shouts. They crossed the moat and Percy noticed something splash in it. He began to feel slightly nervous. _Maybe I'm totally out of my league right now_.

Before they could enter the fort, a boy with closely cropped auburn hair stopped them; he pointed a sword at Percy. What was with the sword pointing anyways? Couldn't they see that he meant no harm? Percy wasn't even sure he could do _any_ harm.

"Reyna! Why do you have someone not on your _Contubernium? _It's against the rules! Lupa's going to feed you to the drakon!" Drakon? That name rang a bell in Percy's head and it hurt him to try to remember.

'Reyna' scowled deeper. "Shut up, Bobby! He was in the camp borders and completely weaponless. I figure he would make some use of entertainment for Lupa."

Bobby looked at him with dark eyes. Something about those eyes made Percy angry and want to fight Bobby until he was on the floor, crying his eyes out. Or at least admit defeat. Bobby looked like it would take a lot for him to cry. "What's his name?"

"He calls himself Percy." Reyna answered.

Percy muttered, "Percy can talk." Bobby sent a glare at him; Percy felt the urge to stick his tongue at him.

"Fine, but don't come running to me when Lupa punishes you." Bobby replied, he turned around and left, shouting at a few kids in a language Percy vaguely recognized.

Reyna shoved Percy making him stumble. His back felt feverish when she touched him.

Percy looked around. There were twelve huge tents near the middle of the fort with about a dozen smaller ones behind them. They were colour coded. Three tents were slightly bigger than the other nine. Percy wondered why they were the only ones without smaller tents behind them.

The biggest tent, which stood all by itself, was a stormy grey colour. It seemed to flap like there was a strong wind blowing against it. It occasionally flashed a bright yellow. There were two marble eagles on either side of the tent.

Near it, was a tent that was only slightly smaller than the first one. To Percy, it was perhaps the most beautiful tent in the whole fort. It was a sea green that matched the ocean. It glowed faintly and showed a few fishes swimming lazily. The tent astounded Percy as he watched the fabric of the tent change the scenery to a beautiful, multi-coloured reef with fish. He recognized a few of the fishes. One of them looked straight at Percy and swam away. Like the first tent, there were two marble statues on either side of the tent but they were horses rearing up instead of eagles

The third tent wasn't as spectacular as the other two. The tent was as black as a nightmare and seemed to suck up any light. Instead of having the illusion like it moved, it was completely still. It made Percy nervous and jittery as he and the others walked past it.

Percy didn't have any time to look at the other tents as Reyna made him turn left toward a huge cave. The cave was out of place compared to the tent and the fort. There were torches along the wall and it seemed that it led underground. Reyna forced Percy to stop in front of it and kneel down. Percy was beginning to dislike this girl.

_"Lupa potens, ego te oportet quod agenda. Tu nos tua gratia praesentia" _Reyna spoke aloud without an ounce of fear in her voice.

After a few minutes, Percy thought that this 'Lupa' wasn't going to show or maybe he really wasn't that important. He made a move to stand up when something emerged from the shadows. It was the biggest wolf that Percy had ever seen. It was perhaps twice as tall as he was with chocolate red shaggy fur and paws as huge as dinner plates.

The wolf looked at Reyna and the others for a second before her gaze when to Percy. Her dark amber eyes were highly intelligent for a wolf.

It snarled at him and he heard a voice speak in his head. _What are you doing here at this camp, Half Blood? You don't smell Roman._

The sheer force of the voice sent Percy lower on his knees. Who exactly was this wolf and why did she have powers?

_I am Lupa, Mother of wolves and raiser of Romulus and Remus. _

Why did those names ring a bell? Even thinking about it made Percy's head hurt, along with the voice of Lupa.

Lupa shook her head at Reyna and her _Contubernium. _They bowed before leaving in a rush.

Lupa turned around and glanced back at Percy. _Follow me, Half Blood. _She disappeared in the cave. He had no choice but to follow her. The cave was dry and it casually sloped downwards until it reached a huge cavern.

The cavern was filled with tables of various stuff, most looked like it was made of gold. Percy wondered how Lupa could write when she transformed right in front of him into a woman with the same colour hair and eyes. Percy wasn't surprised, which surprised him. How could he react so normally?

"Perseus Jackson," Percy flinched at his name. So _that_ was his full name. It had a nice ring to it. "Juno has taken a great risk by putting you in my camp. I should kill you but I cannot."

Percy couldn't help himself from asking, "Why?"

Lupa sent him a cold look. "Perhaps you do not remember, but you have the Curse of Achilles. That makes you invulnerable."

Percy didn't like the sound of the word curse. "I'm sorry to ask, but do you know who am I?"

"I cannot tell you fully. You must discover this yourself while at my camp."

"I'm staying here?"

Lupa growled, seemingly angry with Percy. "Yes, right now I have little choice. Unless you prove yourself weak, I cannot kill you."

"Isn't that a bit harsh?"

Lupa snorted, "Typical. It is the way of First Legion."

"Oh." Percy had no clue what she was talking about but it seemed safer just to agree.

"Things will become easier if you survive. Come, it's time for you to prove yourself." Lupa changed back into a wolf and walked back out of the cave. Percy scrambled to follow her.

"Prove myself?"

_In a battalion, Perseus. Battling the second strongest of my campers._

Percy looked around the fort again as Lupa led him to the far right corner. Most of the kids and teens there straightened when Lupa passed by. They just scowled at Percy. Jeez, what was their problem?

"Second strongest?" Lupa ignored him.

The sun was rising as they arrived at a huge pit. It was about fifteen feet deep and made a huge circle. Gravel covered the bottom of the pit. Percy leaned over it and said "Whoa. How long did it take to-Ahh!"

Lupa had pushed Percy into the pit with her muzzle. Percy had landed on his stomach and coughed. "What was that for?"

Lupa ignored him and howled. Almost instantly, the campers had surrounded the pit, followed by some wolves smaller in stature than Lupa.

Percy heard her speaking with such authority that it almost made him want to obey her. _Roman Warriors, it is time for a Battalion. This boy shall battle Praetor of the Mars Centuria._

Apparently, this was a huge entertainment for them because they began to cheer loudly when Bobby emerged from the ground and jumped into the pit gracefully. Percy muttered something under his breath.

Bobby gave him a dark smirk and pulled out a gold sword.

"Wait! Don't I get some sort of weapon?" Percy shouted as he backed up when Bobby took a test swing. The crowd above him snickered.

_You must prove yourself by yourself; this is how it works _Lupa explained with some patience. Percy groaned and looked at Bobby. Something about him vaguely reminded Percy of someone else.

The lack of weapon didn't appear to bother Bobby as he swung at Percy. He instinctively ducked and rolled away from Bobby.

He had accidentally pulled the object from his pocket. It was a ballpoint pen, black ink and probably worth thirty cents. _Great,_ Percy thought bitterly as he dodged one of Bobby's stabs, _I could draw on him to death._

He could see some annoyance in the crowd and Bobby as he repeated dodged Bobby's sword and physical attacks. His body seemed to be thinking on his own. He saw every attack Bobby was about to do before he did it. He saw every piece of gravel in the pit.

As Percy leaned back, he tripped over a huge rock and went sprawling on his back. His back felt like it was on fire and he couldn't get up fast enough. Bobby had the gold sword against his throat, grinning triumphantly. "Some _Videns patet _you are."

Percy felt his hand uncap the pen against his will. Percy and Bobby heard a sharp _SHING_ Percy looked at his hand and saw a sword that calmed him a bit. It was about three feet long and a gold-bronze colour. _Riptide_; he didn't know where the name came from but it gave him a newfound confidence.

He held up the sword in defence as Bobby swung for the kill.

There was a clang and a huge explosion.


	2. II: In Which an Old Strife Forms

**_Chapter II: In Which an Old Rivalry is Born_**

The explosion surprised Bobby.

He was about to give a lethal cut on this _Percy's_ throat. From the moment he saw Reyna with Percy, he knew that Percy was very different.

For one thing, Percy seemed to walk confidently. Like nothing in the world could ever hurt him. Even when he thought about Percy, he had a sudden urge to humiliate the boy. Percy reminded Bobby of Jason. In addition, he didn't need that.

It was bad enough that Jason went missing a weeks before on _his_ patrol, but now this guy? Bobby was infuriated that he could even get in the borders. The only people that can leave freely were Lupa and Jason.

The explosion threw Bobby and Percy against the walls of the pit. Bobby felt the air leave his lungs with a _WHOOSH_. He coughed and slid down the walls. Where his sword, _Sanguis, _used to be was nothing. Oh, this kid is _really_ in for it now.

"Sanguis! You little _draco cibum_! I'm going to feed to you the drakons!" Bobby yelled. He pulled out a smaller _gladius _and charged the stunned Percy.

Bobby was surprised when Percy defended himself again. While Bobby had some harsh burns from the explosion, Percy looked unaffected.

Percy's sword was very different, Bobby noted as he and Percy battled intensely. Nearly every time their blades connected, sparks flew. Percy's sword was longer and more bronze in colour. Bobby scowled and fought harder, _Mars, if you are listening, please help me win. _Bobby prayed to his father as he was beginning to lose.

The longer he and Percy fought, the stronger Percy became. An arrogant glint flashed in Percy's sea-green eyes and he laughed manically. Bobby gritted his teeth as Percy's sword cut his bicep. _Who is this kid? He's surpassing me. __The explosion didn't affect him at all._

Percy had kicked him in the chest hard enough to lose his breath again. Bobby stumbled and raised his gladius but didn't see the feint. Bobby felt his gladius being knocked from his hand and Percy had somehow reversed the situation. Instead of Bobby being the one on top with the sword against his throat, it was Percy.

Bobby finally tuned in to the environment. His fellow campers were shocked into silence. Bobby was the second best swordsman, well, best now since Jason had disappeared. They all looked at Lupa for some sort of response.

Bobby couldn't stop his heart from beating erratically. Lupa had been in a foul mood since Jason had disappeared. Bobby didn't want to be exiled or worse, be put in a_ par mortis. _Even though they weren't allowed to show any type of physical weakness, Lupa barely tolerated mental weakness now. It was fine to have some sort of mental weakness, like a fear or emotions, so long as it didn't _kill _you.

Bobby glanced at Percy. Something had changed in his eyes. The arrogant glint was gone. Instead, there was mental weakness, as if Percy was fighting with some inner demon.

Bobby heard Lupa's order in his head. _He has passed the test. Treat him as one of us until the next time. He shall stay with the Mercury Centuria until the gods have claimed him._

Percy pulled back and he capped his sword. It turned into a pen,_ a pen? Just like Jason's sword,_ Irrational anger filled Bobby as he stood up. Jupiter had given Jason a magical weapon and now this kid had one as well? _HE_ should be the one with a magical weapon. Bobby was the eldest child of Mars and the praetor of the Mars Centuria. Wasn't that good enough for his father?

He glared at Percy. The need to pulverize the kid came back vigorously. He allowed the only person Bobby felt mental weakness for, Gwendolyn, Daughter of Apollo and Praetor of Apollo's Centuria, to approach him.

"Come on Bobby. That cut looks deep." She murmured as she led Bobby away from Percy, taken by Dakota, Son of Mercury and Praetor of Mercury's Centuria.

Bobby glanced at the cut; it was deeper than he thought. "I don't feel pain, Gwen." He tried to give her a smile but he was still furious that he lost.

Gwen glanced back at Percy, who was being overwhelmed by Dakota and his questions. "Don't feel bad, Bobby. He earned the right to stay here."

Bobby walked past the stables, the Pegasi and horses were acting jittery and nervous. It was his centuria's turn for the stables. Bobby scowled, "True. However, something about that boy makes me want to pulverize him. Like he disrespected Mars or something."

They had arrived at the Apollo Tent. It was red-orange like the sun rise. The brightness made Bobby look away. How the Apollo campers could stand the brightness, he couldn't tell. Gwen opened the flap and gestured for Bobby to sit down in the main tent.

First Legion has two groups of tents for each God and Goddess Centuria. The _Caput tabernaculum_ was the 'head tent' where the campers could relax after a hard day of battling, training or chores. You couldn't enter the centuria's Caput tabernaculum area without permission from Lupa or a camper. The Caput tabernaculum were about as huge as a three-room apartment and decorated to honour the centuria's deity. Apollo's Caput tabernaculum had warm furniture, medicine supplies and books. In addition, some instruments that measure solar energy and other sun related stuff plus worktables for healing and archery making. There were some bookshelves of poetry, books on how to predict the future and song writing. A mini refrigerator that supplied endless ambrosia and nectar, that only the Praetors were allowed to open, had appeared. Supposedly, there was one in every Caput tabernaculum. They only appeared in times of need.

As Gwen grabbed some nectar to put over the cut, which had stopped bleeding, she asked, "Do you know why your sword exploded?" Imperial gold was volatile but only with certain substances and pressures.

At the mention of his beloved sword, Bobby scowled deeper. "I don't know. Maybe it has to do with the sword he has. And we were fighting hard. I had never seen a sword made of celestial bronze. Maybe daggers, spearheads, a few arrows..." He trailed off when Gwen started to chuckle.

"What?" He asked indignantly.

Gwen shook her head, "Oh nothing. It's amusing how excited you get over weapons." Was he excited? Even over his new enemy's sword?

Bobby sighed, "I don't like the kid. Something about him is bad news."

Gwen had started to bandage the cut. "You should call him by his name, he has earned the right."

Bobby rolled his eyes, "Whatever, his name is stupid. Who names their kid Percy?" Gwen had started to heal the burns.

"Maybe because of Perseus, Son of Jupiter? You called Jason by his name." Her tone saddened at the mention of Jason.

"Jason was a different reason." Bobby muttered, feeling the jealousy eating at him. Jason, the goody good of First Legion. Bobby felt that he should be the praetor of First Legion. Since he was the eldest son of Mars.

As Gwen put the supplies away, Bobby stood up. "Gwen, I've a bad feeling that this Percy kid had something to do with Jason's disappearance. I want you to promise me that you won't talk to him unless absolutely necessary."

Gwen turned to face him. "Bobby-"

"Promise me on the River Styx." He gently grabbed her shoulder and looked into her sky blue eyes.

Gwen hesitated before nodding. "I promise." Bobby gave her a smile and kissed her on the cheek.

"Thanks, Gweny. I guess I should go before Lupa catches us." Gwen nodded and Bobby left. He headed toward the stables. The Pegasi and horses were more nervous and jittery than usual. Bobby sighed and hoped he wouldn't be kicked again.

* * *

Percy felt overwhelmed by this kid's rapid procession of questions. "That was so awesome! How did you get a sword like that? What is your sword made of? Does it have a name? How was it like to fight Bobby?"

"What was your name again?" Percy interrupted.

The blonde paused shortly. "My name is Dakota, Praetor of Mercury's Centuria. I'll be seventeen soon."

_Mercury?_ It gave Percy an odd feeling, like accidentally calling someone the wrong name. "Mercury?"

"Yeap! God of Trade, Travellers, Shepherds, Messengers/Messages and Thieves. Don't worry about anybody stealing from you. We only steal from other centuriae."

Percy still didn't feel comforted at the thought of stealing. "Centuria?"

Some of the other campers were whispering when Dakota was leading Percy to their tent. Some had looked angry, awed and suspicious. "A group of each Roman God and Goddess children. Though my centuria has almost been reduced by half."

"Why?" A flash of memories played though his head.

_Bathing in dirty, black, painful water._

_A face of a beautiful blond saying to him. "You're cute when you're worried. Your eyebrows get all scrunched up together."_

_Fighting in the middle of a hurricane._

_A destroyed bridge._

All of these flashes made Percy's head hurt. It barely lasted a second. "Something must've happened at Olympus. Lupa ordered us to build _Caput tabernaculum _or head tents and sleeper tents for the minor gods and goddesses. Who knew they had so many children."

Percy felt a surge of pride and accomplishment at that. He wondered why. They had arrived at Mercury's Caput tabernaculum. It wasn't as grandiose as the other tents he saw but it was friendly. The colour, a warm brown, made Percy smile. There were statues of a caduceus, (He had no idea where the name came from) with a rooster, tortoise and a ram that were surrounded it.

Percy was surprised at the illusion the tent gave. It looked like it could hold around ten people but when Dakota opened the flap. It looked like it could hold about three times as much.

There were armchairs and furniture placed everywhere, as if they didn't have the time to find a proper place for them. Behind the maze of furniture, dozens of tables filled with paper and writing utensils. Some of the campers were writing messages and giving it to the smaller kids. Percy was mildly shocked that there were little kids. They looked to be about two or three years old.

"How old are the little kids here?" He felt bad for them as they nursed bruises and cuts.

"Lupa brings them around two or three from their mortal parents. They stay here unless they're exiled or killed." The thought bothered Percy.

Percy's eyes landed on a huge wall of shelves filled with various, useless stuff. He saw a scarf, arrows even a laptop. Dakota noticed. "Oh, that. It's a small thing we do to keep ourselves entertained. A rite of passage is what the other campers think. We steal and put the stuff we're most proud of on the shelf."

"Does Lupa know?"

Dakota gave Percy a mischievous grin. "No."

Percy couldn't help but smile. Dakota reminded him of nostalgic memories. "I'm guessing you're in charge of the messages here as well?"

"Yeap. We give those jobs to the middle-aged kids and the younger ones to keep them busy. We get all kinds of notes; from illegal love notes to chore details."

"Where do you guys sleep?" As far as he know, he saw no beds or bedding in the tent.

"That's out back, come on." Dakota led Percy through the mess and to the back of the tent, he opened the flap and showed him the smaller, one person-sized tents he saw earlier. "Some of them can hold three campers but it's usually one to each tent."

He led Percy to a tent near the _Caput tabernaculum _"I guess this is your tent. You can choose whichever tent is unoccupied. It has all the supplies you'll need. Clothes, toiletries. The only thing you would need to get is food from the_Tricliniaria _or cafeteria and armour from the armoury or the Vulcan Centuria if they're in a good mood."

"What is that language you're speaking?" Percy exclaimed. It was driving him nuts. He vaguely recognized it.

Dakota looked a bit surprised. "Latin. Ever heard of it?"

Percy thought about it. "All I seem to know that it's a dead language."

"Lupa wouldn't like you saying that." A little girl, maybe the age of five, had run up to them, holding a scroll. She handed it to Dakota, who nodded at her. She bowed and left. Her black pigtails whipping in the air.

Dakota skimmed the scroll. "I hate to leave you clueless but I have to go. Lupa wants me. If you need anything, ask anyone of my campers." He turned to leave before Percy had a chance to reply.

Percy memorized where his tent was and went to ask where the stables were. He felt extremely overwhelmed and it was the first place he thought of.

* * *

Percy's first thought of the stables was that they needed to be bigger. The stable seemed to have more horses than it could hold. Most of them were these winged horses, _Pegasi_, was the word that popped into Percy's head.

A few of the horses had noticed him walking toward them_. My Lord! Can you please help us? These Mars children were unruly with us!_

That stopped Percy in his tracks. Did he hear right or was he going insane? Did the horses just talk to him?

A Pinto horse shook his head at him. _Please, my lord._

Unsure what to exactly do, Percy approached the Pinto and thought to himself, _What do you need help with?_ He didn't speak it but the horses seem to understand him.

_Thank you Lord! _Each one of the horses began to tell him what was wrong.

Percy fixed the problems with ease. Absently as he was working on cleaning the hooves the right way, he began to plan how to make the stable better.

_First, I would make sure the horses and Pegasi were separated. Then make sure the horses had soft hay to sleep in..._

_Doing this seems to calm me. The horses seem to actually like me, unlike the rest of this 'camp'. Maybe Dakota likes me but who knows._

A yell had interrupted his thoughts. At the edge of the stable. A pure white horse with wings was rearing up and calling the person foul names. Percy didn't even think.

He had instantly put himself in front of the kicking legs of the Pegasus. His hands and arms up to show that he wanted peace. _Whoa! Look, calm down. What happened?_

Apparently, talking to Pegasi was like talking to horses. It had stopped kicking and looked at Percy with slight suspicion. _My lord. I implore you to move so I can kick the ichor out of this child!_

The Pegasus had calmed enough that Percy rubbed her muzzle affectionately. _What happened?_

_My wings were hurt and he expected me to fly through the pain! _Sure enough, one of the wings was curled up against the Pegasus tenderly.

_May I touch it?_

_Yes, you don't even need to ask. _The Pegasus didn't say why but maybe it had to do with the fact that he could talk to her. He did not even know how he knew it was a she.

Percy gently opened the wing and noticed a clump of feathers had created a swelling that would've caused the flapping of the wing to be painful. He started to untangle the feathers. The swelling shrank. _I would suggest staying on the ground until the swelling disappeared._

She nodded, _Thank you my lord. I had forgotten to tell you my name. I hope you forgive me._

Percy wasn't sure if not telling their name was an insult but he didn't say. _It's all right. What is it?_

_Bourlota. _When she said it, Percy thought of a black Pegasus.

As he was about to response. The person who he had saved from getting a hoof print had exclaimed. "You! What are you doing here?"

Percy turned around and groaned slightly. It was Bobby, who looked angry. "I wanted to spend some time alone."

"So you went to the stables?" Bobby gave him a strange look.

"If it's so weird to you, why are you here?" Percy retorted.

"Wanted to fly but that Pegasus wouldn't let me." Bobby had gotten up.

"She's hurt, you idiot. And she has a name." Percy disliked how he treated Bourlota with such normalcy. Like he expected her to be in tip-top shape forever.

"How do you know?" Bobby still felt anger when it came to Percy but he had to grudgingly give him kudos for having the nerve to stand in front of a kicking Pegasus.

Percy hesitated. "I just know, okay?"

"Liar! Tell me the truth!" Bobby pulled out a dagger and pointed it at Bourlota. "Tell me or she gets to be my new dartboard."

He had never seen Percy so angry. _"Erre es korakas!" _Bobby faltered a bit. What did he say?

"What did you say?" Bobby had lowered the dagger in surprise but Percy was still angry.

"I don't know. Just go away before I let Bourlota actually kick you." 'Bourlota ' looked at Bobby, as if waiting for an order. This was weirding Bobby out. The white Pegasus was a spoiled one. She would rarely take orders, especially now that Jason was gone.

Bobby scowled and left. Even though he wanted to kill the kid, he'd rather not have a hoof shaped bruise.

Bobby looked back at the stable and saw Percy talking to the horses and Pegasi as if they were long lost friends. He was going to tell this to Lupa.

"Mark my words, Percy. You'll regret not letting me kill you at the pit. I _will_ find out why you're here." Bobby muttered darkly as he headed in the direction of Lupa's cave.


	3. III: In Which He Flies & Burns

**This is probably the fastest I've updated in a long time. Keep the reviews, favs, and alerts coming!**

**The Scribe of Stories**

* * *

**_Chapter III: In Which He Flies and Burns_**

Gwen felt a flash of irritation as she watched Percy fail at target practice. Even after three days of intense one on one time, something that would've angered Bobby, he had barely improved.

"Percy! Keep your arm straight and maybe you won't hit the rocks!" Gwen shouted at Percy. Despite Bobby's warning, Percy was a boy she easily got along with. Despite the intense training that made even the toughest Mars child ache, Percy kept his personality.

She saw Percy scowl and straighten his arm. The arrow barely grazed the target. "Percy! What in Apollo's name is wrong with you! You suck at archery!"

Percy clenched his jaw but kept silent. He wanted to throw the bow down and shout at Gwen. He learned on the first day that it wasn't the best thing to do. Why were the Praetors so cruel? He remembered training in nicer ways. The Praetors kept trying to figure out whom his godly parent was, since he wasn't Claimed.

He obviously wasn't a child of Apollo and definitely not Mars. Mercury? Maybe. Venus? Gwen pondered, he _was _handsome enough (Don't tell Bobby though) but he didn't have that awe-struck aura that the Venus children had. Jupiter? It was a low possibility, especially when given the chance to fly higher with the Pegasi, Percy had almost violently said no.

The training had exhausted Percy but what Lupa had told him pushed him into not showing the exhaustion. He didn't want to be killed. The only vice that Percy loved was the swimming and riding lessons. The water made him felt like he had taken a shot of nectar straight into his blood stream.

Percy sent a prayer to the twin archers, Apollo and Diana, _Please just let me pass this lesson. I promise to send a sacrifice to you guys._ Again, there was that feeling again. Calling the gods the wrong names. He half expected the gods to send him a monster or a curse every time he prayed.

Percy's cuts protested when he knocked the arrow. He kept a volley of them going, not daring to look at the target. When he was done, and when Gwen was examining the target. She noticed that a little of half of the arrows Percy had shot made it. Gwen wanted him to continue training but he had passed the day's goal.

"I wouldn't say you did a good job, Percy. In fact, you barely improved. Are you sure you've been practicing?" Gwen looked at Percy with a critical eye.

"Of course, Praetor. I just suck at it! Gods! Why do you even try?" Percy's temper flared, it wasn't the first time. Gwen was slightly scared when it happened. His sea-green eyes would turn an ocean grey. Like the storms that frequently blow through California. The very sky seemed to change, as if a storm was coming.

"Percy! Stand down!" Gwen snapped at him. "Do you want to be on patrol again?"

Percy scowled, holding back an insult. He hated patrol, especially since Bobby was in charge of it. Bobby had it out for him ever since the pit. "I…I stand down, Praetor."

"You're on patrol anyways. This'll show you to control that temper of yours. Be gone." Percy wanted to unleash the ocean on Gwen.

Nevertheless, he began to leave. "Of course, Praetor."

Percy was beginning to hate this camp. He felt constricted, as if they were trying to pour a gallon of salt water into half a gallon container. He couldn't wait until it was his free day. Rumours from the Venus Centuria had stated that they were going to the beach that First Legion owned.

Percy respected all of the centuriae. Especially the Venus Centuria. (Not just because of the fact, they were vicious gossipers). It was just something about their way of acting. They weren't conceited or selfish like the instant stereotype of being the children of the Goddess of Love, Beauty and Fertility. You wouldn't want them on the bad side. Percy had watched them train and they could become just as vicious as the Mars Centuria.

Percy liked that they actually respected the horses and Pegasi. First Legion seemed to have a problem with them, treating them so harshly. It angered Percy. He spent nearly all of his free time in the stables, fixing the problems.

They had interesting stories, the horses and especially the Pegasi. Since they lived for a long time, they saw many things. Apparently, since the last civil war, there hasn't been a child of Neptune at the camp. Only the child of Neptune can make changes to the stables.

He practically stomped to his tent to change for Patrols. The patrols went past the pyram or bonfire. The pyram was one of the fun parts of sent a prayer to the gods that Bobby wouldn't be in charge.

Of course, he didn't realize that the gods weren't even paying attention.

* * *

Percy tried to keep his eyes open. The pyram had ended a while ago. Meaning, it ended _hours _ago. Percy had arrived just a few minutes late and Bobby had seized the chance to punish him with the late-night patrol.

Percy thanked the gods that he didn't have to do the outside patrol. He didn't have enough energy for the constant running.

_Jeez, nothing is really happening. They should at least cut some slack. This used to be more fun than this. _His mind filled with images of a group of kids laughing as they patrolled a hill. Percy shook his head, those flashes of stuff always made him sleepy and he didn't want to sleep on Patrol.

"Come on, Seaweed Brain. Focus." He took out Riptide and began to polish it. For some reason, these demigods were obsessed over their weapons. Especially the Venus and Mars Centuriae. He was lucky to survive when they found out he had never polished his sword. It never needed polishing.

Percy sighed and stared at the Californian backdrop. Then he looked back at his sword. It was very different from the swords or _gladius_ as they called it. For one thing, it was about a foot longer than the gladius, with a smooth leather grip instead of a knobbed one. The hilt was flat instead of rounded with gold stubs. He always felt like a monster-killing machine when he fought with it.

On the first day of training, he had sword fighting with part of the Vulcan and Mars Centuriae. They made him use one of their swords.

And he sucked at it.

For one thing, the gladius was a lot lighter and Percy hadn't expected it to respond with such speed.

_These people must be experts at holding grudges. I mean, it was an accident after all. _He hoped that Tim, one of the Vulcan campers who actually liked him, was working on a gladius that would be finished soon.

"Percy! Are you sleeping?" Percy flinched and opened his eyes. _Crap, Clary is on Patrol._

"I wasn't, Clary! What are you doing here?" He rubbed his eyes and looked at the blonde female that was smirking at him.

"Sure you weren't. I'm bordering. It's time to switch." Clary poked Percy's chest with her spear to make him move.

Percy frowned. It wasn't time yet, but he didn't want to feel Clary's spear.

He slowly walked along the wall path. If you weren't careful enough, you could fall off.

And fall off is what Percy did.

He didn't realize that Clary had followed him. He barely turned around just in time, the only sense of warning he got was the tingling in his back when someone was behind him.

Clary shoved him and he lost his balance. He grabbed the wall with one hand, the hand with Riptide. "Hey! What was that for?"

Clary put her foot over his hand. It felt uncomfortable. Not painful, just uncomfortable. She reached down and took Riptide out of his hand.

Percy's sneakers could not get enough grip on the weathered down marble walls. His arm felt like it was being pulled out of his socket.

"Sorry kid. You're a bit of a cutie for the eel. Maybe we'll talk if you survive." With that, she nudged his hand away from the edge.

Falling wasn't the most exciting thing to do at night. Especially from a thirty foot wall. Falling from that height would be like falling into cement. Very painful.

_FLABOOSH!_ The bubbles tickled his skin. The ditch was perhaps even twice as deep as the wall was tall. _Illusions, this camp is full of them_. Percy thought as he dug himself out of the mud. His lungs were already burning.

He swam up to the surface, only it wouldn't let him out. It was like being trapped under glass. Percy punched and kicked it. Maybe this was how they drowned the losers and unwanted.

He couldn't take it anymore. He let out a muffled scream of frustration. Why in the name of the gods does this entire camp hate him! Why couldn't he just be normal, or at least claimed? He remembered at the pyram, how much fun the groups had with each other. Even though he was supposed to be with the Mercury group. It just didn't feel like home.

Sure, it was awesome to learn how to pick pocket and how to tell the difference between a real and a fake love note but it wasn't him.

After his frustration dissipated, He was surprised to find that he was still alive, and breathing. He could feel himself swallowing the water, but it didn't choke him. He made a face, this water tasted horrible.

Percy decided to see if there was any kink in the wall above the water. He swam around in circles for maybe thirty minutes. _Wasn't there some type of creature in here? I remember seeing something._

He should've kept his mind shut.

Something dark swam past his peripheral. He turned and found nothing. _This water is so polluted, I'm beginning to hallucinate. _

Something slapped against his back and slammed him into the mud below, sending the various junk that the camp had thrown in. Percy spitted some mud out of his mouth.

He looked up and was face to face with an enormous eel. Well, at least Percy thought it was an eel. It was more scaly than slimy. It had ram horns, teeth the size of knives and was the colour of stone. It snarled at him, electricity arching in the water.

Percy pushed himself away as the eel attacked where he just was. Automatically, he reached for Riptide. Only to remember that Clary took it.

The eel shook its head of the mud and growled, electricity travelling through the water.

Percy looked around for any weapon. Fifteen feet below him, something sparkled. He ducked the tail and swam toward it furiously.

It was a broken spear. Percy dug quickly. Just as he pulled the spear out, the eel had grabbed his orange shirt and flung him upward.

All of the air (or would it be water?) left his lungs when he had slammed into the force field at the surface. Percy shook his head to clear the yellow spots in his vision.

The eel roared and swam straight for Percy. He didn't dodge fast enough; the eel had grabbed his leg and jumped out of the water.

* * *

Clary was _still _bored. Even that kid, Percy, died a simple death. Lupa had called her earlier and told her to throw Percy to the water drakon.

She had hoped to watch Percy gave some sort of fight. He was a good fighter for someone so skinny. He had simply plopped into the water like a stone and hadn't been seen for a few minutes.

"At least I got a new sword." She mumbled to herself. She swung Riptide around, it was lighter than her gladius, _Spiritum_ and it was longer.

"It's going to take some time to get used to it." She ran her fingers along the double-edged blade.

"Ow!" Clary pulled her thumb away. The darn blade had given her a cut. She sucked on her thumb to soothe the sting. "At least he kept it sharp."

A roar and the smell of ozone brought her attention back to the murky waters. The Ram Eel jumped out of the water occasionally.

Riptide shook in her hand.

Clary couldn't believe her eyes. Percy was in the mouth of the Ram Eel, _alive_.

"Percy! How are you alive?" She shouted, leaning over the edge in time to see the eel and Percy disappear in the water. "Well, he won't be alive for long."

Riptide was shaking violently. Clary was bewildered. "What in the name of Minerva?" Riptide was pulling her toward the water.

She let go of Riptide. It shot into the water like an arrow, disappearing into the murky water.

"Well, there goes a good sword." Clary muttered as she watched the water.

* * *

"Ahhh!" Percy's yell was lost in the wind as the eel launched out of the water. The air made his eyes water and he glimpsed Clary looking at him in surprise, holding Riptide.

_Riptide! If only I had my sword. _Percy thought as the eel dived again.

He had lost the spear when the eel grabbed him. He tried to grab the fin to right himself. It was as slippery as a seal underwater.

The eel shocked him numb as Percy managed a grip. The eel turned sharply and Percy's head slammed into a rock, shattering it to pieces.

Through his blurry vision, he saw something glint in the dark waters heading straight toward him. He held out his hand and Riptide landed on his palm.

_Yes! _Percy slashed through his shoe to free himself. He spun in the water from the force. The eel noticed and turned around, snarling and spitting the remains of Percy's shoe out.

Percy held the sword as the eel swam straight toward him again. He swung in an arc and an underwater tornado formed, catching the eel.

Percy grinned and swung Riptide in the other direction, stopping and leaving the eel spinning.

Percy swam toward the eel, seizing the chance to grab its horns. He pulled up and eel shook his head, roaring.

Percy prepared to stab the eel when it swam up, creating electricity.

Apparently, the horns weren't conductive because Percy didn't feel the shock. However, he felt himself being launched into the air. He was so high up, that he could see the entire fort.

The eel had decided to meet Percy halfway. The eel jumped from the water and opened its mouth in a roar.

Percy figured he might not survive if he met those ugly teeth. He looked at Riptide.

The eel arched electricity as Percy threw Riptide straight into the mouth.

* * *

It was a win/lose situation.

Riptide hit its mark, going through the eel's entire body through its mouth.

The eel jerked violently before dissolving into powder.

The electricity that the eel launched at Percy also it its mark.

Percy felt like he was on fire, his vision blurred, his muscles turned to jelly and he lost consciousness as he free fell into the water with a sickening splash.

Clary watched this with awe and grim. _Lupa's not going to like to know that the eel is dead._ _She is going to be interest in the fact he survived under water for fifteen minutes._

She couldn't help but watch as Percy landed in the water. "That's gonna hurt."

Something clanged behind her; she turned around to find Riptide land on the walkway. She picked it up; there was a noticeable dent in the blade. _Percy's not going to like that._

Bobby was not going to like this. "Camper down! Camper down in the water!" Clary shouted, pointing where Percy had landed in the water.

Falling into the water was common and the campers on Patrol acted quickly. They didn't know that the eel was dead.

While they were fishing Percy out of the mud, Bobby came to her. "Who fell?"

"Percy."

Bobby gave her a glare, "I thought he fell a few minutes ago. And I thought you were going to be silent."

"I didn't think that was part of the plan." Clary replied, watching as they dragged an unconscious Percy out of the water. His armour was melted and his orange shirt was burned to ashes. He did not have any burns, _Was he like Jason?_

"I thought it would've been obvious! He's not like us! Lupa even said so herself!" Clary had never seen Bobby so angry about something.

"Is this just because he was the second person to beat you?" Clary snapped at him. Everybody knew about Bobby's jealousy.

Bobby stayed silent and Clary took that as a yes. She turned from him and began to leave. "Where are you going?" Bobby asked quietly.

Clary turned around and pointed at her watch. 6:45 am. "It's time to switch Patrol and I have to check on Percy, since he's in my charge."

She felt Bobby muttering to himself. What was wrong with him? Maybe she should ask Gwen, she would probably know.

Riptide turned back into a pen. The pen looked like it had gone through the entire time of middle school. The barrel was cracked and bent and the cap had bent marks.

"First thing's first. I gotta tell Lupa about this." She noticed that Gwen was talking to Lupa. Percy had beaten her to Lupa.

Lupa was sniffing Percy, her ears flat. Not good.

When Clary got closer, Percy was in even worse shape that she thought. The electricity from the eel had melted the armour onto Percy but he still didn't show damage. Percy was barely breathing.

Lupa looked up at Clary, a questioning look in her eyes. _What are you doing here?_

Clary stopped by Gwen, she held Riptide tightly. "I thought that you should know something about Percy."

Before she could explain, Percy began to glow a sea green. It was so bright; it brought a crowd around them.

Lupa growled lowly, ordering them to stay away.

Clary had never seen the crowd so still. They all gasped and started to kneel. Just like when Jason was claimed.

She glanced at Percy and stared.

On top of Percy's head, there was a spinning trident.


	4. IV: In Which He Replaces

**_Chapter IV: In Which He Replaces_**

_Thrown into the air so high that the sky darkened and falling._

Percy jolted awake, flailing his arms like he was actually falling. He couldn't recognize where he was and the feeling in his gut, like someone was twisting his insides into knots.

_Perseus, calm down. You are not falling _Lupa's voice broke through the panic.

Percy sat up, "Lupa? Where am I?" He felt stupid even as he said it. He remembered that he was at First Legion.

Lupa regarded Percy with her dark amber eyes. Percy squirmed under her gaze. _You are in the Infirmaria. After what had happened._

"What had happened?" Percy held his head as all of the memories of the eel returning. "Oh. Now I remember."

Lupa seemed to grin at him. _Yes, you managed to slay the Ram Eel. I believe simply getting out of the water was not good enough for you?_

"I couldn't get out! The water wouldn't let me!" Percy swung his legs over the cot and regretted it. His head felt like it was an anvil.

_True, I have enchanted it to do so. Unless you had not proved yourself strong, the eel would have killed you, or the fall if you had not landed in the water._

"The fall! Where is Riptide?" Percy got off the cot and bent over to avoid the nausea. He was glad that the Apollo healers had remembered to dress him. A figment of a thought was left in his head, something about waking up in his underwear. He had on a loose purple shirt and grey sweats with no shoes.

Lupa pointed to the table with a bowl of ambrosia and a glass of nectar. The pen that was Riptide looked worse than Percy had ever seen it.

Percy gently grabbed Riptide and uncapped it. There was a noticeable dent in the blade and it was badly scratched. "Aww curses! I knew it was a bad idea to throw it. I'm such a _vlacas._"

Lupa growled lowly. _What did you say?_

Percy tensed. Lupa's growl made the hairs stand on his neck. "Vlacas?"

_Where did you hear that? _

Percy's instincts told him to lie. "I...uh..." He wished he remembered something to help him with this.

Lupa's attention briefly left him. Her ears twitched and she turned away from Percy. _I have to go. We will continue this later._ With that, she bounded out of the tent.

Percy was momentarily relieved that something had distracted Lupa. Whatever he just said had made her angry and he didn't even know the meaning. "Note to self," He muttered. "Stay in the English language."

He looked at Riptide, "And before she comes back. I need to talk to Tim." He drank the glass of nectar and left the tent.

Without his shoes.

* * *

_They need to clean up the grass here. _Percy thought as he stepped over of what he thought was the leftover remains of a gold hawk.

Percy had almost passed the Vulcan area. He had forgotten that the tent was an illusion; instead, it leads to a tunnel underground.

"Tim?" Percy called down the tunnel, shuffling his feet. "Are you down there?"

"Well, not anymore! I'm coming up!" Tim's voice echoed back. His mop of brown dreads poked out of the tunnel.

Percy backed up, careful of the scraps of metal behind his feet. "Percy! You're alive and with skin!"

He raised an eyebrow, "With skin? I thought skin came mandatory."

"Shut up! I meant as in, you have skin left. From the rumours, I've heard. The amour was melted on your skin and the Apollo campers had almost decided to make you an automaton."

This was interesting. "And?"

"The oddest thing happened. The melted armour fell off you like a chocolate shell." Again, the chocolate reference. Tim absolutely loved chocolate, almost as much as metal.

Percy stored this information as Tim continued to ramble on about what had happened. "Hey, Tim. I was wondering if I could ask you something." He interrupted.

"What? Oh! Your gladius! It's done, come and see." Tim motioned for Percy to follow him into the tunnel.

Percy felt jittery as he climbed his way down carefully. He was still barefooted and the Vulcan campers weren't known for their cleanliness. "Tim? I was hoping you could help me with something."

"Sure! What do you need?" Tim helped Percy down and led him through the forages and furnaces to Tim's tent.

"Can you help me repair Riptide?" Percy looked around and felt a pang of guilt. All of the inventions he saw that Tim was making had reminded him of a sad, perhaps preventable, death.

"That awesome sword? What happened to it?" Percy uncapped Riptide and showed Tim.

His silence wasn't reassuring.

"Listen, Tim. I had an idea. You know about celestial bronze, right?"

"In a small amount. I had never seen it in such a high amount. I can perhaps save it into small daggers."

Percy hadn't felt so devastated in a while. "No! You can't do that to Riptide! I have a feeling that it can be repaired."

Percy remembered the first time he made a sword. He began to see the Imperial Gold as Celestial Bronze. "I have a feeling that Riptide isn't t done yet."

He told Tim his idea.

Afterward, Tim looked at Riptide. "Percy, I don't know. Hazel wouldn't like it."

"Just let me use the forge. I swear it won't take that long. If you make the box that is."

Tim nodded and left to do what Percy asked.

"I had never heard of a sword being repaired this way. " Tim commented as Percy settled the still hot Riptide into the Imperial Gold box.

"Neither have I. It just came to me."

"And if it doesn't work?"

Percy didn't try to think about that. "Trust me; I have a feeling it will."

"By the way, your gladius is ready." Percy looked at Riptide in the box and muttered something in that same language he spoke earlier with Lupa.

The box, intricately decorated with patterns that resembled the waves of the ocean, glowed faintly as it began to fill with sea and fresh water.

Tim watched with amazement. News that Neptune claimed Percy was actually true. He pondered in telling Percy, when the Apollo campers were healing Percy.

"So you are actually the Son of Neptune." Tim murmured.

Percy looked at him, startled. "What? Neptune? The God of the Oceans?"

"God of horses, sea, water, sea storms and earthquakes." Tim corrected.

"What did you mean about me being the son of Neptune?"

Tim brought out Percy's gladius as he explained what happened two days before. "It was like someone had injected straight blue green neon gas into you."

_I think that would've killed me if that were actually real. _Percy randomly thought as he absorbed this information.

"So does that mean I have that blue-green tent?"

Tim was still holding Percy's gladius. "Yeah, that's where you're staying at. The fauns have already moved your stuff there. You need to name your gladius."

Percy's gladius felt a bit off-balanced in his hand, it was nothing major. The Imperial gold shined flawlessly in the glow of the forge. Percy tried a few stabs and moves with it. He smiled, "You're pretty awesome, Tim. How do I name it?"

"Pick a name in Latin. Any name. Usually, the names have something to do with the godly parentage."

_"Tempestas."_ Percy said the first word he thought of. It must've been his imagination but he could've sworn that Tempestas glowed a bit brighter.

Tim snapped his finger. "Oh! I almost forgot! I made you a Celestial bronze knife as well. I felt like you might need it. You don't have to name it." He brought out and Percy had a flash of a memory, some blonde girl and blonde guy. The blade was about eighteen or seventeen inches long. It was doubled edged like a sword and the tip was wickedly sharp, even looking at it, Percy felt the possible pain by being injured by it. The hilt was wrapped in smooth leather that was dyed a faint sea green. There were small orbs that fit in so well into the hilt. Percy didn't even feel them.

Percy wanted to name the knife but he didn't know any name yet. "Tim, you didn't have too. I love it though."

Tim smiled brightly then looked up. "I think you should be going. Hazel is going to come back soon and she wouldn't be very happy to find you here."

"How am I going to leave? Isn't there only one exit?"

"That is the main exit. There are many minor exits. From exploring, we've figured out that there are tunnels leading to the Caput tabernaculum of each god centuria. I'll show you the one that leads to Neptune's Caput tabernaculum."

Percy sheathed Tempestas and the knife. He picked up the box that contained Riptide and closed the lid, keeping the combination of sea and fresh water in.

He followed Tim to a hole that was about the size of a manhole. Looking at the tunnel, Percy felt a small spark of panic.

"Just follow the tunnel up, it might be five minutes total if you move fast." Tim added as he glanced at Percy.

Percy nodded slowly and climbed up into it. He absently wondered how dirty his feet were.

* * *

If it weren't for the glow of Riptide's box, Percy would've had a complete panic attack. The tunnel was tall enough that he could bend over easily. It was as dark as it could be, possibly dozen of feet underground. He heard strange noises as he climbed up but Percy made himself think that it was simply the Vulcan area.

After 100 Mississippi (give or take a dozen or so), Percy had arrived at the end of the tunnel. He saw a handle and opened the door.

The air smelled so fresh that Percy had thought that Tim had tricked him and sent him to the beach. Percy climbed out of the hole and found himself inside the blue-green tent he saw when he had first arrived.

The glow of the tent made Percy feel like it was underwater. The tent was spacious, even more so than the other Caput tabernaculums he had seen. On the left side, there was a small pool of water that occasionally let out a spurt of steam. Like the others, there was a small area of shelves with books in relation to the patron god.

The floor was made of stone from the sea floor. From Percy's angle, he could see petrified shells and fossils. Some of the floor wasn't exactly even but it wouldn't cause any balance problems.

Percy looked around and saw that his stuff had been indeed moved in here. They were on a cot that was in the farthest right corner.

Percy felt more comfortable here than perhaps anywhere at this camp. He set Riptide on an empty shelf and changed his clothes.

"Percy?" He looked toward the front of the tent to see Reyna hovering at the entrance. Something appeared to be stopping her.

_Why is she here? I haven't seen her since the first day. _"Yeah?" Percy noticed at her hair was down this time and that she wasn't wearing any armour.

"Can I come in?" She sounded slightly nervous.

"Uhm, sure. You need something?" Percy wasn't exactly comfortable with Reyna. Those grey eyes made him feel like he was a science experiment.

Reyna came in and she looked around the tent. "Lupa told me that you would be on border patrols for the afternoon."

"What? What did I do?"

"You killed a guardian of the camp." She stated it as if it was obvious.

"But it was trying to kill me!" Percy felt frustrated again; can't he ever get a break at this camp?

"Not all triumphs are rewarded." Reyna replied. "You have fifteen minutes before the next watch starts." She left before Percy could reply.

The tent seemed to respond to Percy's emotions. The walls of the tent started to turn a storm grey and the water turned cloudy as the sand churned in it.

Percy grabbed Tempestas and the knife. He decided to leave before his emotions got him into trouble again. And he didn't want to destroy or ruin the tent.

He glanced at Riptide before leaving the tent for the stables.

* * *

The horses and Pegasi were happy to see him. Especially Bourlota.

_My lord, you look down. What's wrong? _Bourlota asked as Percy sat down on an up-turned bucket.

"I wish you guys wouldn't call me lord. Percy is just fine."

The Pinto that Percy had met, Daisy, shook her head. _We possibly couldn't! It would go against our nature. _

Bourlota nudged Percy, _What is wrong?_

"I've been sent to border patrol." Percy muttered. "I feel like I'm contained and isolated. And I want my memories back."

Bourlota tilted her head. _Feeling contained is a flaw of the ocean, my lord. You of all people should know that._

"Yeah, I guess so. It's just so hard to control my emotions. Everyone is so mean here." The last sentence made him feel childish.

_You should blame the Romans for that. They are more militaristic than the Greeks are. They aren't known for their toleration of weakness._

"What about the Greeks?"

_Comparing, they were softies. _

Percy couldn't help but smile at that. His mood was already more calm than before. Even though it was against rules, he fed the horses and Pegasi sugar cubes and apples.

"You guys always make me feel better." Percy commented as he quickly changed the hay before he had to leave.

_It's our pleasure to serve you, lord. _Bourlota nickered. _Will we see you later?_

"Perhaps. I have border patrol and you guys might know how long that lasts."

He said goodbye to them and jogged to one of the watchtowers.

* * *

"Percy! You're here early." Reyna commented, her eyes wary. Percy wasn't known for his ability to be on time.

Percy didn't reply, he gave her a dry look before asking, "Am I in your _Contubernium? _"

Reyna nodded. "Yes, we'll be doing the outermost patrol, near where we found you."

"Fabulous." Percy grumbled, slipping on the lightweight Roman armour. Border patrol involved exploring and occasionally, you would find a couple of monsters. A rumour around the camp says that there was a hydra in the forest somewhere.

Soon, perhaps after fifteen minutes of running, they found hydra tracks. They had to avoid the puddles of the bright green acid and fallen trees.

"Percy, you and Todd stay here in case it comes around." Reyna ordered. Todd wasn't on Percy's list of people to stay with alone. Todd had black hair like Percy but a part of it was dyed white. He had dark blue eyes and a black sword. He was a few inches shorter than Percy and the same age as him.

When Reyna was out of sight, Todd sat down and closed his eyes. "So, you're the son of Neptune?"

Percy started to nod before he remembered that Todd has his eyes closed, "Yeah. I am."

"So we finally have all three." Todd murmured.

"What are you talking about?" All three? Of what? Somehow, he knew that three was a sacred number.

"The three eldest gods. Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto."

"So you're what? Son of Jupiter?"

Todd snorted. "Hell no. My father is Pluto. Jason is Jupiter's son."

"Who's Jason?" Percy felt like he was missing something important.

"The top praetor of the camp. He was such a goody-goody."

"What happened to him?"

Todd opened one eye and looked at Percy. "Dunno. He just disappeared a few days before Reyna found you."

"Oh." Percy didn't know what to say, or what to feel. He hoped he had nothing to do with this Jason's disappearance.

Percy looked up and saw a black object in the sky. He glanced back at Todd and figured he wouldn't be missed.

He figured out that it was a Pegasus when it started to fly in circles and land. The Pegasus was as black as Bourlota was white. Percy wondered how it could stand the heat when a girl got off the Pegasus.

"Blackjack, why are we here?" The girl asked. Her voice brought a feeling Percy couldn't name. Unease? Love? Embarrassment?

Blackjack shook his mane and that was an apparent sign for the girl to start looking. _Man, I miss the boss. Wish he'd told me where he booked off to. Maybe I could've gone with him._

Percy wondered why Blackjack couldn't see him; he was almost out in the open.

Most of Percy's attention was on the girl, so he didn't expect to hear Todd wolf whistle lowly. "Whoa. Chick's pretty hot."

Percy felt jealousy and anger. He felt protective of the girl. He simply nodded in agreement.

"Makes me wonder where she's from. She has a Pegasus and I'm pretty sure they don't like mortals."

"They don't." Percy stated. The girl was familiar. "Should we get Reyna?"

Todd shook his head, "Nah, the magical border keeps anything unwanted out. They can't see or hear us, even if we have a full on battle on this side. It'll just be silent on the other side."

The girl looked in their direction and Percy felt a jolt in his lower back. Her eyes brought back a flash. Being underwater and seeing those eyes bright and happy.

"I hear Reyna coming back. Let's go." Todd said, turning away. "Let's keep this a secret. Lupa wouldn't be happy to hear about this. Kay?"

Percy nodded, if telling Lupa was going to hurt this girl, he would keep his mouth shut for as long as needed.

Percy and Todd backed up and returned to their post. Turns out that Reyna was in fact coming back. They barely had time to sit down when she returned. The hydra escaped.

"So, how was just sitting and waiting?" She rhetorically asked. "Anything happened?"

Todd answered before Percy could open his mouth. "Nothing happened."

Reyna looked at Percy for confirmation. He simply nodded.

His mind was racing with questions. Who was the girl? Why did she have a Pegasus?

But most importantly, why did he feel like he knew her?

* * *

**Now, Now I bet you guys are thinking _But Annabeth didn't even suspect that Percy was in California until the end of The Lost Hero!_**

**I would like to point out that the book didn't even mention where Annabeth was searching, for all we know. She _could_ have been searching California. ****It's a fanfic and i thought it would be more interesting if that happened. Dont like it? Tell me in a review but no flames.**

**Plus, some Latin words are perhaps inaccurate (I used Google Translate) if there are any words that seemed confusing, tell me and i will try to fix it.**

**Merry Christmas! (Reviews make lovely presents for my email inbox)**


	5. V: In Which The Surf Unites

**_Chapter V: In Which the Surf Unites_**

_Finally, free day has arrived_. Todd thought as he opened his eyes.

Pluto's Caput tabernaculum was pitch black inside. Light was provided by the glow of bright green torches and the reflection of the various gems embedded on the tent's walls. One time, out of curiosity, Todd had removed a ruby and tested it to see if it was real. It was.

So, if Todd decided to run away, he knew how he was going to get the money he needed. There were enough diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds and all of the other gems and treasures to set him for three rebirths.

Todd got up and stretched. His mouth still tasted of marshmallows even after four times of brushing his teeth. The night before was entertaining.

He and his friends had introduced Percy to 'Mouthy Minotaur' or 'Fluffy/Chubby Bunny' for the mortals. You have to put in marshmallows in your mouth and say Mouthy Minotaur without swallowing or chewing the marshmallow. The winner is declared by how many marshmallows they have and if they haven't puked the marshmallows.

Todd liked Percy. Anyone who can fit twenty and a half (yes, half of a marshmallow. They had ran out of marshmallows.) Marshmallows into their mouth are okay with him. Percy's personality also amused him. Todd felt a bit of responsibility when he heard that his uncle, Neptune, claimed Percy. After all, shouldn't the children of the most powerful gods stick together? Or at least try not to kill each other?

Todd and Jason got along just fine. Their friendship could've had some improvements but as long as Jason didn't summon the winds on Todd and lifted him up in the air, Todd was fine.

He changed into his swimsuit and slipped on his blank First Legion purple shirt. Today, not only he was going to visit the beach; he was going to teach Ol' Neptune's son how to windsurf.

"Should be pretty easy," Todd said to himself, "Guy's the son of Neptune. If he can't do anything aquatic, then I'm a faun's uncle."

"If not, it'll still be hilarious as a centaur in a dress." Todd ran his hand through his hair before leaving the tent for breakfast.

* * *

"Percy! Get up!" Percy groaned and covered his head with the blanket.

"Todd! Go away…" He mumbled, wanting to get back to his dream, whatever it was. All he could remember was a pleasant, butterfly-inducing feeling.

He could practically feel Todd's eyes rolling. "Don't you want to see the beach? Feel the water against your skin, the sand making everything itchy? Oh, and you missed breakfast."

Percy opened his eyes and looked at the tent entrance. "I missed breakfast? Dude, why didn't you wake me?" He got out of bed and stretched.

Todd snickered, "I figured you'd want your beauty sleep, ya know. To impress the girl of your dreams."

Percy was glad that the tent flap remained closed. His face felt warm from his blush. Ever since he and Todd saw the blonde and the black Pegasus, Blackjack, he'd been acting as if he was under one of the Venus' Centuria's love spells.

"Shut up, Todd! Don't make me stuff a mackerel in your throat." Percy half-heartedly threatened.

"Where would you get a mackerel?"

"I dunno. I'll find one though." Percy opened the wardrobe. Percy found it after he had returned from border patrols. At first, he'd thought that one of the fauns had given it to him, because of his father.

It wasn't until he discovered that the pool went deeper than he'd originally thought that the wardrobe was magical, so to speak. Percy didn't have any swimming articles and just so he can get it out of the way, he opened the wardrobe and looked. He was surprised to find a pair of black and sea green swirled swimming boxers. Even more surprising, they actually fit him pretty well.

Percy had gone near the pool and noticed that there wasn't any actual floor. The water gave the illusion of a floor. Percy climbed into the pool and went under the warm water.

He had to double check to make sure he was still in First Legion. It looked exactly like he was in the ocean, with fishes, reefs, seaweed, kelp and sand. Lots of black, brown and white sand, all swirled together in complex patterns.

When he had left the pool an hour or two later, Percy had put the wet swimming boxers into the wardrobe and it protruded a new pair plus some underwater tools. And after a couple of experiments, he figured out it would only give out water related items.

Percy put on the stuff Todd told him too, plus a First Legion purple shirt. For some reason, Percy preferred orange to purple.

Before Percy left, he grabbed the knife Tim had given him. He still hadn't named it

* * *

The sand felt fantastic underneath Percy's feet as he looked around for a good spot to put Todd's cooler. Todd had left him with the task while he went to get the windsurfing equipment.

Some of the campers had given him weird looks and some had even avoided it. Percy thought that it should worry him but he really didn't care as long as he didn't get into any fights.

"Percy! Wait, it is Percy, isn't it?" A very feminine voice called to him. Percy turned toward the voice. He was very surprised to find Amara smiling at him.

Amara, a daughter of Venus, had a slight interest in the Son of Neptune. She admitted that he was somewhat cute. The interest was purely curiosity, or that's what she told her fellow campers.

"Uhm, Hello Amara." Percy greeted, he didn't really know how to talk to Amara. Her hazel eyes and auburn hair made Percy slightly nervous. Like he had a girlfriend or something along the lines and it made him feel like even talking to a girl will cause pain.

Amara smiled brightly and Percy held the urge to take a step back. "Hey, Percy. How you've been?"

"Alright, I suppose. And yourself?"

"Fantastic! I'm at the beach after weeks and weeks of training. Have you seen Todd anywhere?" Percy didn't know whether to feel relieved or worried. Amara was fierce during training and Percy would hate to be at the bad end of her knife.

"I don't know. He said something about getting the equipment." He nodded in the direction where Todd went.

Amara turned to leave, "Thanks, by the way, I like your necklace. The beads are pretty."

Percy looked at the necklace around his neck. There were four beads on a smooth piece of leather. The beads were creatively designed. The first bead was pitch black with a sea green trident; the second bead had a sea green background with a gold bath mat, at least that's what it looked like to Percy. The third had the pattern of a maze that even glancing at it gave Percy a headache. The final bead had the picture of the Empire State Building with names in Ancient Greek. How he knew that it was Ancient Greek, he didn't know.

Percy felt nostalgia whenever he looked at the first two beads. The last two gave him a darker feeling, which he can't describe.

Percy shook the feeling away and continued his search for a good spot.

* * *

Bobby watched the ocean waves soak the sand. He never really understood why Lupa had only one day of rest for every three weeks.

"Bobby? Hello?" Gwen waved a hand in front of his face. She looked mildly annoyed. "Someone home?"

Bobby glanced at Gwen. She was wearing the First Legion purple shirt and orange shorts. She preferred not to have flip-flops because she didn't see the point. Her red hair was in a messy bun.

Bobby thought that Gwen looked beautiful.

"Sorry, Gwen. Distracted a lot today." Bobby gave her an apologetic smile.

Gwen rolled her eyes. "What were you thinking about?"

"That Percy guy. He and Todd are weirdly close now."

"So? They're children of the Big Three."

"The Big Three weren't known for their cooperation, Gweny." Bobby dryly replied.

Gwen chuckled and started to draw a pattern in the sand. "Maybe for the Greek counterparts."

"I guess so. But don't you find it odd that Todd befriended Jason and now Percy? Think he's got some secret motive?" Bobby chuckled at the last sentence.

"Whatever Bobby. Lupa would sniff out a secret plan before the person can even finish planning it."

"Speaking of plans, there is gonna be a quest soon." Gwen casually said, swinging her feet back and forth.

Bobby looked at Gwen, surprised. "What? To search for Jason?"

She sighed, "No. Jason probably felt for some secret quest or something like that. Lupa doesn't seem that worried about Jason."

"Probably means he's dead." He deadpanned. Deaths were very common at First Legion. _Aut vincere aut mori. _Conquer or Die. Survival of the Fittest, whatever you want to call it.

Bobby had seen his fair share of deaths at the camp. Lupa taught them to respect the deaths of their fellow campers. He thought that it was slightly unfair that the young children die more quickly. If he had to estimate, out of every hundred new campers, fifteen don't make it very far.

Gwen flinched slightly when Bobby said that. It wasn't as if she had feelings for Jason. It was just that Jason helped her out quite a few times when they both arrived around the same time. She sometimes thought that if it weren't for Jason, she would probably be dead. "Bobby. Don't you think Lupa would do something if the Consul of the camp was dead?"

Bobby shrugged. "Maybe. Anyways, how do you know about the possible quest?"

"The Oracle approached Lupa and Lupa sent for me afterwards."

Bobby thought about this. The Oracle didn't show up very often. Nobody at the camp even knew what it looked like. Not even the oldest campers. Lupa's wolf companions probably knew but they kept silent about it.

"Did you hear the prophecy?"

_"The Eldest Half-bloods Beware by Sleep."_

_"Stone and Flesh Collide, Only Freed by Snow and Water"_

_"Beginning at Old Places, The Immortal Metals Shall Reap"_

_"The Forgotten and Lost Arouses, To Return Against Slaughter."_

_"Child of Both. A Secret is Bilked, for Only Allies will Keep."_

"Bilked? What the in the name of Pluto does that mean?"

"Lupa told me it means cheated, eluded."

"It sounds like there will be blood, if slaughter is what it means."

Gwen looked at the ocean and frowned. "This child of both must be important if the guy's secret is revealed."

"Child of Both? Both what? Gods, half-bloods?"

Gwen shrugged. "I think Lupa's more concerned about who will be going. The Oracle has already chosen the campers going."

Bobby could see where this was going as well as he could see a weapon on anybody. "Gwen, don't tell me you're going!" He couldn't stop the jealousy and anger from boiling. So everyone gets special treatment besides him? The campers should all be bowing to him, Son of Mars and Praetor of his Centuria.

"Bobby, remember your fatal flaw. Remember what Lupa told you when you became Praetor?"

Bobby glared at the sand, nodding subtly. "I remember, Gwen. It's just-"

A high-pitched scream interrupted him. Both he and Gwen stood up and rushed back to the beach.

* * *

"You're doing better than I hoped." Todd remarked as Percy finished his lessons on surfing and windsurfing.

"What? Did you want me to fall into the ocean?" Percy grinned. He had caught the hang of the sports quickly.

"It's always amusing to watch someone face plant into the water. It would've been hilarious if you did some."

"Haha, Todd. I'm glad your confidence in me is high." Percy sarcastically replied.

"My confidence says you can't beat me in a race." Todd challenged. "How about it? Is the Son of Neptune ready to lose?"

"I accept your challenge, and it will be you who will lose."

"Alright, first one to the nearest buoy and back is the winner."

"Deal."

"Ready…set…go!"

The race started out pretty good. The wind was perfect for windsurfing and the water felt good. Todd was maybe ten feet behind Percy. The buoy was in sight and Percy began to turn.

There was a small yell behind Todd and Percy didn't bother to look. _It must be one of the young campers freaking out over seaweed. _

Todd had caught up with Percy. He stuck his tongue out at him and grinned. They both turned around the buoy at the same time.

Percy clenched his teeth and willed his board to move faster. It seemed to respond to his will.

Percy heard the scream. He looked up from the water to find Amara and a couple of other girls scramble to get out of the water. Percy found that peculiar. Surely, a couple of girls couldn't be scared _that_ easily.

Of course, that was before the monster burst out of the water.

Percy looked at Todd and they both nodded.

The sea serpent made the Ram Eel look like a worm. It was an ugly, blotted grey and green colour with scales around his head, making Percy think about that lizard that can extend his skin to make him look bigger or something like that. It had wickedly sharp teeth as long as Todd was tall. The eyes were a combination of a fish and a snake, milky white.

The serpent hissed at the campers trying to get out of the water. Percy waved his hand at the water and a billow emerged from the water and pushed the campers to shore.

Todd somehow had a bow and a couple of arrows on him and he amazingly began to shoot the serpent at its clinks in the scales while making balance on the board. The arrows exploded when they made contact and caused the serpent to become angry.

The serpent turned to Todd and snarled at it. Its tongue was like a snake, long and an ugly colour.

The scales around the serpent's head expanded as the serpent opened its mouth and snapped dangerously close to Todd.

The serpent opened his mouth and prepared to attack again.

* * *

The campers reacted surprisingly well for a first time attack in the water. After the campers that were in the water had gotten out of it. The campers got arrows and long ranged weapons seemingly from nowhere. (Actually, Lupa required them to take weapons wherever they went, free day or not.)

Bobby saw Todd and Percy still in the water. Todd was shooting exploding arrows from his windsurfing board and Percy didn't seem to be doing anything. Bobby scowled.

He called for a spear. He saw that the serpent was well protected.

Besides its mouth.

Bobby measured the distance and threw the spear.

* * *

Todd was almost running out of arrows and he probably couldn't dodge another attack without losing either his weapon or his board. Then he would be dead meat.

He knocked an arrow. _Well, better to die now than to some stupid thing. Like a Hydra attack or Hellhounds._

The mouth of the serpent wasn't pretty. It was a bright, Pepto-Bismol pink. It reminded Todd of the Nemean Lion.

Todd was about to shoot when the serpent got a tongue piercing. The spear seemed to appear out of nowhere and pierce the tongue right in the middle.

The serpent wasn't very happy about the new look it got.

It roared and slapped its spiked knobbed tail against the water, creating a huge twenty to thirty foot wake.

Luckily, Todd was in control long enough to stabilize himself as the wave passed him. The serpent turned its head at the beach. Green smoke had started to billow from its now closed mouth.

"Oh, crap. Poison? Reeally? Can it get any worse?" He looked for Percy to see if he was okay.

Percy was nowhere to be seen.

* * *

Percy's vision was blurry as he clung to the serpent. The huge wave that it created had launched him from the board and onto its head.

Landing on the serpent wasn't comfortable. He believed that when he landed, he destroyed some of the scales around its neck and head.

Staying on the serpent was even harder. The scales were slick, smooth, wet and slippery. He managed to grab one of the various horns and hold on.

He started to see green smoke coming out from an area near him.

The serpent seemed to know that someone was on it. It shook his head back and forth, keeping its mouth closed. Percy had to hold his breath in order not to inhale the smoke.

"Percy! Percy! I know you're up there! I need you to open the mouth!" He was so surprised at the fact that he could hear Gwen so clearly that he almost lost his grip. Percy would've answered if it weren't for the fact that he would've bitten his tongue off.

"Percy! Do it or die trying! It's an order!" Percy wanted to scream at Gwen that it was impossible but he tried anyways.

He could feel Todd's exploding arrows shake the serpent's body as he tried to maneuver to the mouth, or where he thought the mouth would be. He had a couple of scary moments when he lost his grip.

Percy finally reached the mouth. His only signal was his hands had encountered a soft, squishy thing under the scales.

_I really think I can't do this. _Percy thought as he got under its lip flaps. He hooked his feet between the bottom teeth and his hands grabbed the top teeth. He took one last breath before forcing the jaws open.

The serpent felt something in his mouth and it produced more poisonous smoke. The smoke make Percy's skin itch but he tried to ignore it.

At first, the jaw wouldn't open and Percy was tempted to give up but slowly, the jaw opened. The force made his muscles scream in pain. And it became more difficult to keep steady as the serpent shook its head more violently.

Fifteen minutes of doing this, Percy had managed to open the mouth wide enough. The poisonous smoke cleared briefly and he took a huge breath.

He regretted it instantly.

The breath of the serpent smelled like rotten fish, seaweed, brine and smoke all combined. The serpent obviously never brushed its teeth after every meal.

_Gods, when are you planning to move, Gwen? _Percy desperately thought as the serpent tried to close its jaws. _I can only go for so long_. Weirdly, Percy was reminded of a worse pain than this. Like he was holding up the sky.

One of the sharp teeth scraped against Percy's shoulder. It bounced off harmlessly but Percy knew it would've been a lethal wound. 

_Hurry up!_

* * *

Gwen anxiously watched as what she hoped to be Percy forcing the jaw open. She had to wait for the right moment. "Archers! Prepare your weapons!"

She had ordered the archers to go as far into the ocean as they can. It was very difficult seeing as the serpent's thrashing created huge waves and wakes.

Finally, Gwen could see the tender pink insides of the serpent. She was amazed that Percy even had the strength to do it. "Release!"

The credit of the serpent's defeat would have to go to Bobby the most. While the arrows did hit the serpent, Bobby's spears did the most damage.

The serpent thrashed in pain and tossed Percy into the water. _Great, not again._

The serpent spat some more smoke and disappeared into the ocean.

Bobby sent his best swimmers to go find Todd and Percy. It wasn't too hard, considering Percy was conscious this time.

Percy stood up against the healers wishes and Todd did the same.

"Percy, Todd. You did a better job than I thought you would. Kudos." Bobby grumbled to him. Percy looked surprised and Gwen didn't blame him. Bobby ever rarely compliments anyone, except her.

Todd looked at Percy and asked. "Well, who won?"

Gwen and Amara had to hold Percy to prevent from attacking Todd.

* * *

**First update of the year! Happy New Year to everyone!**

**Updates won't be as frequent because of school and my book but probably expect an update between one to two weeks. The main problem would be getting enough time to think about the next chapter and to type it down. (Don' worry. I have the basic plot on my ipod which means this is an official fanfic! Praise The gods!)**

**Opinions are greatly appreciated. Did i abuse the line breaks? (Im horrible at transitions...) Was the Prophecy good enough? (It took forever to find words that rhyme with water and sleep...) Did I get information wrong? (I sometimes forget details and all PJO info comes straight from my copies and the PJO Wikia.) Details that need to be cleared? Anything you want to see? Did i over do anything? Horrible Descriptions? Do I ramble in the author's notes? etc.**

**Oh, let's see if we can beat my other PJO fanfic with reviews. _Born For This_ has twenty four reviews and we're at eighteen! You guys can do it! (Not meaning i wont update until this thing reaches twenty four reviews. I hate authors that do that.)**

**Even though it isn't Christmas, reviews still make lovely presents for my inbox!**

**_The Scribe of Stories._ (I seriously was surprised that no one picked this name...)**

**PS: The next chapter title will be _In Which Political Fists Fly. _Like it? Wonder how i come up with the titles or what they mean? Wondering what I got for Christmas? (Gotta stop rambling and get to bed...)**


	6. VI:In Which Political Fists Fly

**_Chapter VI: In Which Political Fists Fly_**

Lupa sat still within the confines of her cave. She was mildly surprised that Juno had taken Jason without her permission and left her with this 'Percy Jackson'.

Lupa knew about Percy Jackson's conquests. Her wolf children were placed all over the country to ensure that Greek and Roman don't make contact and to keep up with news. She knew about his quests and battles. She would even dare to say that she was mildly impressed. _He has the qualities of a Greek and a Roman._

That had bothered Lupa. When Reyna had presented him, he smelled Greek but also Roman. Lupa had thought that this was intended by Juno in order not to kill him.

Lupa's tail swung back and forth on the ground. What the Oracle had assigned the campers to go on the quest had bothered her as well. She expected a child of Apollo to go, for healing purposes and a child of Mars, for battles and such. The last camper that would go on the quest would usually have something in relation to the quest.

That would make three, the number needed in order for the quest to be blessed by the Fates. Three Fates and three eldest gods, the beings of the sacred number.

The Oracle had assigned four campers to go. This has happened before, but the quest always ended badly with it failing or some of the campers on the quest had been brutally killed or bad luck had haunted them.

From what the prophecy said, the quest will have bad luck haunting it the moment they leave the camp. And if this quest failed, it would be even harder for Jason and the others to fulfil the latest Great Prophecy.

The Oracle's choice can be overruled. Lupa had only done this once and the quest was deemed a success, much to Chiron's dismay.

Lupa barked an order to a nearby wolf to summon the Praetors for a meeting and to bring Percy along as well.

* * *

Percy sifted through the sand, watching it as the black, white and brown sand mixed briefly before going back to their original patterns.

He swam around for a bit when something in the white sand caught his eye. It was a small conch shell. Nothing out of the ordinary really, about three inches in length and a peachy colour. Something about it seemed special to Percy.

He picked it up and examined it. _Yeap, nothing special about it._

Percy wondered how the blonde girl was doing and if they ever found what they were searching for.

"I'll give it to the girl if I ever see her again." Percy decided on a whim. He wouldn't hear the end from it if Todd knew.

Percy felt a presence in the tent above him and swam straight up. He figured out that he didn't have to swim back where he entered.

There was a large wolf sniffing in his tent. For a minute, Percy had thought that it was Lupa but the wolf wasn't as huge as Lupa was and its fur was a chestnut brown.

The wolf looked at Percy, who was still in the pool. _Are you Percy?_

"Yes, I am." Wolves were clearly respected here and they won't hesitate to maim or kill you if you showed disrespect.

_Get dressed and climb up._ The wolf didn't look to happy when he said that but Percy complied anyways.

"Where are we going?" He asked as the wolf bounded from the tent and started to run to the back of the fort.

_Lupa has summoned a meeting with the Praetors of First Legion._

"Am I a Praetor?" Percy was confused. He hadn't done anything to earn the right to become a Praetor, unless being the only child of a god automatically makes you one. He doubted this.

The wolf confirmed this. _No, you don't have the right to earn the privilege of become a Praetor. That is only for the strong, committed, brave campers of First Legion._

The wolf reached the end of the fort and jumped over the wall, landing gracefully. The sun was beginning to set. "Then why am I being brought over there?"

_A simple representative for Neptune. You won't have any say in the meeting._

"Glad to know I'm important." Percy grumbled. "Where are we going?"

_The place where the meetings of importance are held in a building a distance from the camp._

"Why?" Percy wondered why the wolf was answering his questions. The wolves at First Legion tended to ignore the campers.

_Praetors tend to do anything to get their way, including huge battles._

"Huge battles? How would they do that?" Becoming a Praetor became less appealing to Percy.

_Summoning monsters, using the powers that their godly parent gave them, almost anything they can use to win._

"Oh." By that time, they had arrived at a domed building. It was about as tall as the fort's wall and there seemed no way to get in.

Percy got off the wolf and looked at the dome. "How do I get in?"

The only reply was silence, so Percy guessed that the wolf had already left.

He walked along the perimeter of the dome. The pillars were differently designed to show the god they represented. Percy passed on what he assumed was Zeus's pillar. The pillar was a stormy grey which shown an eagle holding a lightning bolt.

The next pillar was sea-green with the symbol of a gold trident in the middle. At the bottom of the pillar was a tablet written in original Latin. Percy had a hard time deciphering it but this is what he got from it.

_Dome intrare in campis primum fac montes oportet_

_To enter the Dome, you must first make plains into mountains._

"Plains into mountains? How am I supposed to do that?" He asked himself as he examined the inscription closer.

…_Earthshaker, lad. You don't know your own strength._

Earthshaker? What did Dakota say about Neptune? Percy racked his brain for information. Something about earthquakes? Percy's mind was filled with Latin information since there were two sessions at First Legion. The intense physical training session that lasts about 4-7 weeks then a schooling session where everything is in Latin.

"He's the god of earthquakes…" He muttered to himself. "But how am I going to make an earthquake?"

Percy looked to the ground for any sign that could help him or inspire him. He took out the knife that Tim and twirled it while he looked. He was decent with a knife, not as skilled as a child of Mars or Venus but decent.

_Nothing so far,_ He thought, getting a bit frustrated. He had no idea how to make an earthquake and he would've turned back if he didn't have to face the wrath of Lupa or the wolf that brought him.

He closed his eyes and willed the earth to shake, it didn't and Percy felt stupid.

He went back to the pillar and sat down in front of it. He was completely out of ideas. He was also hungry since he left before lunch.

Percy wondered how he was gonna get back as he made patterns in the dirt with the knife. Something was glowing on the knife and Percy looked at it.

The orbs that seemed to be just a decoration was glowing a dark brown, like the dirt he was playing with.

_Is this just like Riptide? _Riptide harnesses the power of the ocean. Percy had no idea how he knew that but this gave him an idea.

Percy grabbed the knife by the hilt and stabbed it into the soft spot on the ground. He watched as the three orbs slowly filled with the brown light.

He picked up the knife. It felt warm comfortable in his hands. "I wonder if Tim designed it this way, I'll ask the next time I see him."

Percy didn't know what compelled him to stab the pillar. For all he knew, it could've insulted his father. Was Neptune temperamental anyways?

Nothing happened for a few seconds.

Suddenly, the ground began to shake violently. Percy lost his balance and fell. Cracks appeared in the pillar and the dome. Even the ground opened up.

After what seemed like five minutes, the ground stopped. Percy took a couple of minutes to reorient himself. "So I don't get immunity from earthquakes? Wished I would've known beforehand." He muttered as the dizziness faded away.

The ground had fared less than he did. There was a ton of dust in the air and some of the ground was uneven.

His knife was still in the now cracked pillar. There was also an opening in the pillar. Percy forced himself up and walked back to the pillar.

Percy pulled the knife from the pillar and looked at it. The orbs were empty and the knife felt cold.

"I shall name you _Terraemotus." _He must've been dizzier than he thought because he could've sworn that the knife glowed slightly when he named it.

Percy put _Terraemotus _back in its sheath and slowly entered the Dome, cautious now since he was in 'Praetor' territory'.

* * *

Percy walked down a long hall with paintings of various kids, teens and adults. _This must First Legion's equivalent to the Hall of Fame. Is that Benedict Arnold? _The painting that had Benedict was X-ed out in a blood red paint with blue words spelling out TRAITOR in capital letters.

Percy kind of wanted to look at the paintings but his attention span wasn't really cut out for staring at really old paintings.

"I bet you fifteen _Aurei _that your Contubernium won't win at Sabotage tomorrow night." Percy heard someone challenge.

Percy stopped short of a brightly lit room. The room was circular and it seemed to be in the middle of the Dome since he could see the ceiling become convex.

In the middle of the circular room, there was a round table with thrones surrounding it. The thrones were as unique as the _Caput tabernacula_ back at First Legion. In the middle of the large, round table was a fire pit. The fire pit was lit despite it being the middle of the day. The flames were a mix of orange and grey.

Percy saw a brunette look up from a magazine and snort. She was sitting on a throne that looked like it was taken straight from a Barbie house. The armrests were puffy and a baby blue. The rest was a hot pink and Percy was positive he saw it glitter a bit. "Sure Christian. When Todd's white hair turns black is when I'll lose to you. Bet's on."

"Hey!" Todd protested, looking up from a huge ruby he was playing with. He was on a pitch black throne that looked like it was made from obsidian; it was studded with jewels, and precious metals. It seemed to suck the light around it. "Why does my awesome hair have to be the subject of an insult?"

A guy who was sitting two seats away from Todd, rolled his eyes. "Be quiet Corpse Breath, I think I just heard something outside the Dome." He has golden hair which reminded Percy of a bale of hay. It was spiky and messy as one as well. His throne seemed to be taken straight from a garden. The main part of the throne seemed to be made from reeds or bamboo, the arm rests were made of wheat and hay.

Todd glared at the guy. "Shut up Flower Boy."

"Corpse Breath, Flower Boy here is right. Didn't you feel the earth shake?" Bobby asked. Bobby didn't look to happy. His throne was made from chrome and leather. The leather looked worn and it was torn in some places. The top of the throne was chrome and it had two lethal looking spears on either side, they sparked with red electricity.

Percy felt a knife at the back of his neck. The holder of the knife made him walk forward by poking it hard in his neck. "Lookie at what I found here. A trespasser?"

All of the Praetors, (Percy counted eighteen) turned to glare at him, even Todd. He felt much unprepared against eighteen people who could make his life like hell.

"What are _you _doing here?" Reyna demanded. Her hair was in a ponytail. The throne she was sitting on had a blueprint pattern on it. There was a cup holder full of silver and white markers plus all sorts of writing tools. There was an owl perched on the upper right corner.

"I-I don't know. Some wolf brought me here." Percy stammered. Reyna's eyes were really distracting.

'Flower Boy' scowled a bit. He had pale green eyes. "You must be a representative then."

"Representative?" Percy asked. He kept a hand on Terraemotus in case they decide to attack him all at once.

"Someone who isn't a Praetor and is the only child of a god or goddess but come to Council Meetings when needed."

The brunette in the Barbie throne entered in the conversation. "It must be pretty important if a _representative _is needed." She said the word like it was an insult.

Reyna nodded. "I'm guessing this rules out the possibility of Lupa assigning the new Praetor for First Legion."

Everyone seemed disappointed at that, Reyna, Todd and Gwen looked slightly worried. Bobby looked displeased. "What happened to the first one?"

At first, nobody answered. A guy with shaggy purple hair answered for the Praetors. "He went missing a couple of days before you arrived." Percy recognized his voice. He was the one who challenged the brunette. Christian, he sat lazily on a tiger patterned throne. He was eating ripe, juicy grapes that were growing from a vine that was wrapped around the chair. "Ever since then, we've been anxious to see whether or not Lupa will either assign a quest to look for him or assign a new Praetor of First Legion."

Percy kind of liked the guy. His hair was weird, of course but he supplied the information that he wanted. Something about Christian irked Percy just a tiny bit.

He suddenly noticed that everyone in the room was looking at him a bit suspiciously, like he was the one to blame for the missing leader of First Legion or maybe that he would become the new Praetor of the camp. He wasn't even a normal Praetor. _They are pretty competitive._

"Might as well take a place at your throne." Another redhead spoke, she was by Bobby and her throne was one of the simplest there was. It seemed to be made of Imperial Gold and bits of Celestial Bronze. There were veins around it that seemed to be holding fire.

The girl seemed to be the peacemaker or their interest in him lowered a bit. The Praetors turned back to what they were doing. Todd glanced at him before going back to his ruby.

Percy sighed and scratched his head, shaking some dirt from it. He looked around the room. There were very few empty thrones, around five.

The biggest throne in the room was between Todd and another throne. It was made from pure gold and white puffs of smoke occasionally released. There was a huge picture of an eagle holding a thunderbolt in its claws on the front of the throne.

Beside it was a throne that was made from huge seashells. It didn't look all that comfortable but when Percy sat on it, it was.

He got a weird feeling when he sat down. He felt that all of the other Praetors were ruining his power. He shook the feeling away. He wasn't like these people, he really didn't care if he became a Praetor or not.

It seemed that he was the last person needed because Lupa walked in. Everybody stood up in respect and sat back down when she nodded her head.

_Senatus Populusque Romanus. _Lupa said, Percy and the others repeated what she said.

She looked at Percy. _You should learn to control your powers. _She looked back to the others. Todd was not amused; he looked at Percy, a bit annoyed.

_The meaning of this meeting is because the Oracle has spoken. _Everybody straightened and they looked excited. Percy wondered why but said nothing._ She has spoken of a quest that will help return our leader and it is related to the Second Great Prophecy. Gwen, say the prophecy so out representative can know._

Gwen took a deep breath and began to recite it.

"_Seven Half-bloods shall answer the call.  
To storm or fire, the world must fall.-"_

Percy's throat felt constricted, like someone was choking him. His voice or breathing wasn't affected. _"An oath to keep with a final breath. And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death."_He finished for Gwen.

If the glares of the Praetors scared him, the surprised looks terrified him. Even Lupa looked surprised.

Bobby narrowed his eyes. "Where did you hear it? That information is only for Praetors to know. We haven't even told the other campers yet."

The constricted feeling was still there. He had to control his hands to stop them from going to his throat. "I don't know…"

Bobby scoffed. "Quit playing the I-don't-know- crap. We all want to know how you got in the borders without Lupa's consent, how you got your sword or why nobody can hurt you. We need to know _who you are."_

Gwen, Todd, Christian and all of the other Praetors nodded their consent. Percy wished the ground could open up and swallow him.

Lupa growled once. _That is a time for later, Bobby. We have to focus on the quest the Oracle has supplied. Gwen, say the other prophecy._

Gwen looked visibly shaken by what Percy said. She thought Percy was an alright guy but now that he knew the Second Great Prophecy. That wasn't good news. The Second Great Prophecy was told after they conquered Mount Orthys when they returned to First Legion. Gwen thought that the second one was scarier than the first one.

_"The eldest half-bloods beware by sleep.  
Stone and Flesh collide, only to be freed by snow and water.  
Beginning at old places, the immortal metals shall reap.  
The forgotten and lost arouses, to return against slaughter.  
Child of Both, a secret is bilked for only allies will keep."_

Lupa sat down behind Gwen. _This prophecy does not speak well children. The oracle has chosen four campers to fulfil it._

Whispers started. A single bark from Lupa silenced them. _The ability to override the Oracle's chosen campers is possible; it does not work out half of the time. Choose wisely._

'Flower Boy' asked, "Who are the campers, first of all?"

_Gwen Ferrate, Bobby Malcom, Todd Muerti and Percy Jackson._

"Three Praetors! That's not fair!" The brunette exclaimed. "They're gonna take all the credit!"

"The Praetors? Who cares? Why does _Percy _have to go? I don't think he even has his camp tattoo yet. He's not important!" A teenager with grey hair retorted. He was at the far end of the table. The throne he sat on was made from glass. Percy could see the colours of the rainbow as the light from the room reflected off of the glass.

"Jeremy is right. We should remove Percy. Three Praetors is enough for this quest. What do you think, Ashing?" Bobby asked the guy who sat by Jeremy. He had spiky chestnut brown hair and eyes that were different colours. The left was forest green and the right was storm grey.

Ashing leaned back, putting his arms behind his head. Percy wasn't sure what his throne looked like, whenever he tried to concentrate on it, it changed forms. The only things Percy was sure of that it was divided in half and each half was different. "Chose to remove Percy, then you might have trouble when '_Stone and Flesh collide, only to be freed by snow and water.' _Keep Percy, you'll have trouble from the start, after all its four people."

Todd rolled his eyes, "Come on, Ashing. We know you're a son of Janus but will you please give us a straight answer? Your contradicting answers don't lead us anywhere."

"Ashing is right," Gwen replied. "I think Percy should stay, also I think we should just leave the chosen campers as it be."

Everyone besides Percy looked at her as if she said '_Let's stop killing monsters and be friends with them. Won't that be fun?'_

"Why Gwen? Because if our leader returns you can say you contributed the most to his return?" A guy said. His hair was honey-gold and cropped neatly. The throne that he sat on reminded Percy where a champion would sit. It was higher than the other thrones besides Todd's, Percy's and the one between them. It was actually sitting on a magnificent chariot, Percy could only see part of the chariot but he could see a laurel wreath pattern.

"Shut up Tristan. Being in only one quest won't contribute a whole lot, unless it's actually bringing our leader back. Which I don't think it will." Gwen retorted, her cheeks slightly pink.

Lupa said nothing as the Praetors argued about who was going. She wasn't surprised to see they weren't focusing on the meaning of the prophecy. If Jason was here, they probably would have. Now that the spot of the leader of First Legion was open, they were getting more competitive.

Lupa examined Percy. He was looking at his lap and wasn't contributing much to the argument. When Percy finished the Second Great Prophecy, it confirmed her theory.

Lupa knew that wherever Percy went, trouble followed. One of the flaws of being a child of a god with unpredictable nature.

Elijah, Son of Invidia finally spoke. The others quieted a bit. When the son of a goddess who can balance almost everything spoke, people took care to listen. He asked, "What is the purpose of the quest? If we knew, maybe we can figure out who is better suited to go."

Everyone turned to Lupa, waiting for an answer. _The rebellion against the gods is not over yet. Many ancient monsters are rising. The purpose of the quest is to stop one of them._

The room was silent. _It's not over?_ Percy dreadfully thought.

A strawberry-blond boy broke the silence. He looked younger than everyone in here. The throne he was sitting on looked like a cup used for wine in the Middle Ages. "How do you know, Lupa? I mean no disrespect. I am merely curious."

_I will tell you when the quest is completed. Everything will be easier to understand after it is done._

"Okay."

Reyna took the silence for the opportunity to speak. "We can just let the campers go and leave it to the Fates. I mean, if the Oracle has chosen the campers for this quest. They're all gonna be needed at some point. We should figure out who is Child of Both is." Most of them nodded in agreement. Bobby didn't look too happy.

_It is wise, Reyna. _Lupa agreed._ Have you considered the option that the quest is fated to fail since there will be four instead of the sacred three?_

Reyna folded her arms and leaned back. "Yes but wouldn't the quest be much more susceptible for failure if we kept with the sacred three? I think we should keep it the same and send them out as quickly as possible. If the rebellion is not over, it's going to be a much harder war to win than the Second Olympian War."

Percy wasn't pleased with this and he hated not knowing why. He agreed with Bobby slightly, he was tired of saying I don't know.

Reyna looked at Dakota. "When do you think they should leave?"

Dakota shuffled in his throne. It looked like a first class seat in an airplane with a caduceus "They should probably leave in the morning."

"Let's finish this meeting soon. We're gonna miss the pyram." A petite, dirty blonde girl murmured. Her throne was covered with random facts, it was made from white stone and the letters of the facts glowed.

"This is important, Alice. The pyram can wait." Hazel insisted. Alice pouted and murmured something about a new trick.

Todd cleared his throat. "Let's just vote now, while there is still silence in this room. All for Gwen, Bobby, Percy and me raise your hand." Gwen, Reyna, Hazel, Dakota, Christian, the brunette, another strawberry-blonde girl along with the guy, Alice and Todd raised their hands.

"All those in favour of eliminating Percy from the quest, you may raise your hands now." Bobby, 'Flower Boy, Ashing, Jeremy, Tristan and Elijah raised their hands.

"Is that everyone?" The strawberry-blonde guy asked.

"No, Louis and Matthew are asleep, again." Alice supplied, looking annoyed.

"We'll count them against. So that's ten for and eight against." Bobby scowled.

"It's decided. Gwen, Bobby, Todd and Percy, you guys should get ready. I believe this meeting is over. Issack, wake up Louis and Matthew, will ya?" Reyna said, her tone saying that it was final. The strawberry-blonde guy nodded and walked over to two boys, one with messy brown hair and the other with unkempt grey hair.

"Louis, Matthew. Wake up." Issack shook them both. The one with brown hair looked up at him sleepily, his throne was made from clouds and it looked irresistibly soft. The grey-haired teen leaned back and stretched.

"Did I fall asleep again? Why can't my place be moved away from Louis?" He complained sleepy and got off his throne, which Percy couldn't see like it was a mirage. Matthew stumbled slightly before gaining his balance.

Louis had a harder time waking up and almost put Issack to sleep. "Louis…you don't want to stay in the Dome again? You can go back to your tent now." That seemed to work for Louis lifted his head from the table and yawned.

Percy turned his attention away from them and saw that everyone was just walking into the dark halls and disappearing.

He sighed, he really didn't want to go to on this quest but it looks like he has to.

He walked down one of the empty halls, his mind racing. _It can't be a good thing if the rebellion isn't over yet. This Second Great Prophecy is gonna be a lot worse than the first one._

He didn't know why his gut was telling him to be even more careful. His gut also told him that the quest will not be in his favour.

With those thoughts in mind, Percy walked deeper into the halls and was teleported back to First Legion.

* * *

**Wassup my various demigods, fauns, nymphs, dryads and minor godlings? It is I! The Scribe of Stories. I apologize for not updating earlier but stuff has kept me busy. I hope the longness of the chapter will please you. Not much happens in this chapter but never fear! The chapters will get a bit more exciting now that there is a quest. (What PJO fanfic isn't complete without a quest?)**

**Updates will still be going on, just at a slower rate.**

**So, can you name all of the Praetors in this chapter and their godly parent? I hope i made it obvious with their thrones. Predictions? What do you think the quest prophecy means?**

**Remember, reviews make lovely presents for my inbox!**


	7. VII:In Which Things Get Hot

**_Chapter VII: In Which Things Get Hot_**

_Todd was standing in the middle of a wheat field. Something was wrong about this, he thought as he looked around. Nothing was with him besides a fresh breeze and even than made him feel uncomfortable._

_"Children of Pluto are very predictable, almost as predictable as the children of Jupiter or Mars."_

_Todd looked around for the source of the voice. He couldn't find it anywhere. "Do you think you're special because you're a child of the former Big Three?"_

_"I am the only child." Todd responded, starting to get angry._

_The voice laughed, it reminded Todd of huge boulders smashing together. Over and over and over again. "Oh, the ignorance of the gods and their vassals continue to amuse me. One day, Lupa and Chiron will regret this."_

_"Chiron? Who in the name of Mars is that?" Todd looked up in the sky. It looked calm with a few clouds following the breeze. What was wrong in this picture?_

_"You will know soon enough. But first, I will show you."_

_The image of the wheat field disappeared and Todd felt the sensation of falling in the darkness surrounding him._

_Todd landed roughly in an empty grave. Someone had just started digging it. He climbed out and looked around. He was in a cemetery, in the middle of the night. The cemetery had a surreal look to it, the graves were too new and almost all of the graves had flowers. _

_The cemetery was empty besides a boy dressed in black and a huge dog with him. The dog was so huge; it made a garbage truck look like a mini cooper. _

_The dog whined, and nudged the boy. He had dark hair and olive skin. "Mrs O'Leary, I know he isn't here. I have to check something then we'll go back to searching, okay?" What a weird name for a dog._

_Todd stepped closer, something about the boy felt familiar to him, like knowing who your family is when you met them for the first time._

_The boy twisted the skull ring on his finger, almost nervous. Just as he was about to pull something out of his aviators jacket, Todd heard a low growl that vibrated the ground._

_The boy paused, "What's wrong Mrs O'Leary? Mrs O'Lear-"_

_Todd turned just in time to see the dog pounce on him before falling into darkness again._

_"The person who has the answers is your enemy and he is right in front of you."_

Todd sat up right on his bed. He didn't know what time it was but he knew it was almost morning. He felt sweaty and jumpy. He could still feel the weight of the dog slamming into him. Now that he was awake, Todd was almost positive that the dog was a hellhound, though a lot bigger than the ones at camp.

Todd held his palm over his heart, feeling the quick thumping of his heart. If you haven't felt your heart after a hellhound pounces on you, you haven't felt anything.

What was that voice? And who was the boy? Todd has so many questions that his head started to hurt.

He sat in his bed for who knows how long before the morning call rang. It was never a good thing to be awake before the morning call. Todd ran his hand through his hair. _Should I tell Matt? I don't think I even have enough time to get ready to leave. Shoot._

Todd rubbed his eyes and rushed to get ready on time.

* * *

Gwen woke up just as the morning call rang. She didn't know what to feel since this was her first quest and all. Failing was not an option but this quest seemed doomed from the start, especially since Percy and Bobby were going to be together.

_Those two are going to be a pain throughout this quest. Especially Bobby._

Gwen stayed in her cot for a few minutes wondering if she could do anything to stop those two from fighting. Probably as likely as meeting the original Pegasus.

She got up and grabbed her bright yellow satchel. She had packed the night before. _Spare clothes, check. Supply of arrows, check. Book of mythical monsters and creatures, check. _

"Looks like I've gotten everything I need." She mumbled to herself as she got dressed.

On the nightstand by her cot, the photo of her mother, her sister and cousin stood in the background of the Empire state building. It was about a year old but Gwen cherished it dearly. Lupa didn't allow any contact with parents or relatives that were mortal. Somehow, her mother had sent the picture to Dakota, who had given it to her.

She slightly smiled at the various tones of redheads in her family. Her mother's hair was almost a dark orange colour it looked a bit weird with blue eyes. Her aunt had dark red hair like Gwen's, except it was curly instead of straight and the same hazel eyes.

Even though she had never met her cousin, Gwen felt oddly close to her. Like they went through the same experience. Gwen snorted quietly at that. In the picture, Rachel looked like she could take on anything with her reddish brown hair and green eyes. Gwen wondered how she was doing with a mortal life. She would give almost anything to have a mortal life. Being the offspring of a god does have its perks.

Gwen put it inside of her satchel, she didn't want anyone to see that she had broken a rule, her status as Praetor would be ruined or taken away.

Before she left the tent, Gwen tried to pump herself into thinking that this quest wouldn't fail and that it would help Jason and the other six demigods destined to be in the Second Great Prophecy.

* * *

Bobby twirled his new gladius, _Acris between his fingers. The gladius wasn't as light as __Sanguis but he will get to use it. He felt good today. Every monster that blocked their way, Bobby will eliminate it. That'll show that Percy who's better._

Then his dream will come true.

The night before, Bobby had one of the better dreams than the normal, terrifying dreams that demigods are cursed with having. He dreamt that he had beaten both Jason _and Percy in a par mortis. And that he was lifted on a shield, being called Praetor of First Legion. _

Bobby smiled to himself and a tuff of hair fell onto his face. He moved the tuff away from his eyes. "Curse Kim. Cutting my hair every few weeks is starting to get annoying. I swear she can hold a grudge better than Todd can."

He picked up his purple backpack and put Acris in its sheath that was hooked to his pants.

When he left the tent, he saw Percy leaving the stables. Good, at least Percy had the smarts to finish his morning chores before leaving.

Bobby took a deep breath of the fresh morning air before leaving to meet the others.

* * *

_My lord, you look tired. Bourlota stated as Percy yawned. __Did you get enough sleep?_

"Slept like one of the kids from the Somnus Centuria. Almost slept through the alarm Tim had set up for me."

_Is it true that you will be leaving the camp for a quest?_

"Yeah, how did you know?"

Daisy answered for her, _The Venus kids gossip too much. They gave me the wrong hay last time._

Percy chuckled slightly. "I'm not surprised but yeah. I'm leaving soon; I'd just finish my morning the chores before I leave."

_My lord, are you sure you are going to be safe?_

"Since when were quests safe? It's gonna be as safe as being here, only not so predictable."

_My lord, then why are you going?_

"I have to, what else can I do? I also want to go."

_But you might get killed! We don't want that!_

Percy shrugged and refilled the troughs with water. "I dunno why, but I don't mind it if I die. I don't think I can die."

_What do you mean you can't die?_

"Lupa told me I have something called The Curse of Achilles. She wouldn't tell me what it was."

The morning call rang, _just in time._

_My lord, we hope you do return. If you ever need me, just call my name and I will be there. Bourlota promised, kneeling down._

Percy blushed slightly; he wasn't used to the horses' royalty treatment still. "Thanks Bourlota. I'll keep that in mind."

_We wish you luck, my lord. The horses and Pegasi said as Percy left the stables._

Percy arrived at the entrance of the camp. There was a white van outside the gates and Todd, Gwen were there. Dakota was there as well.

"Dakota? What are you doing here?" Percy asked.

Dakota gave him a lazy grin. "I'm here to give you your supply. You each get one hundred and twenty five dollars and twenty _Aurei, plus a couple squares of ambrosia and a canteen of nectar that all of you have to share." He handed the canteen and plastic baggie of ambrosia to Gwen and her bag of money. _

"Sweet, twenty Aurei for me." Todd took the baggie of money from Dakota. "O hope this quest is gonna be cheap."

Gwen rolled her eyes. "If you didn't spend your Aurei on sneaking in outside snacks into camp, you wouldn't have to be scrambling for money.

"Hey, I need my Doritos and Sobe drink. A teen needs his junk food." Todd chuckled.

"Plus," Dakota added. "I get some profit from that."

"Profit from what?" Bobby asked.

Dakota gave him his bag of money. "Nothing, Bobby. Just some old fashioned sneaking around."

"Whatever Dakota. Just make sure my Vanilla Coke is in my sleeper tent when I come back." Dakota snickered at Gwen's surprised look.

"Bobby, you're with Dakota as well? Percy, what about you?" Gwen asked, a bit annoyed.

"No…"Percy answered.

Gwen looked at him.

"Okay, okay. Coke and blue candy. Sheesh." He admitted. "Don't hurt me."

Gwen scoffed, "I'll be waiting in the van." She turned and entered the white van.

Dakota was smiling. "Well, I think she'll keep my little business a secret, don't cha think?"

"The ride to Frisco is gonna be really awkward." Todd supplied and Percy agreed.

"Anyways, you guys should be going. Remember, don't go too far east."

"_Aut vincere aut mori." _ Dakota saluted them as they entered the van.

..

"What did Dakota mean by 'don't go too far east'?" Percy asked to break the silence that developed in the van since they left First Legion.

Gwen, who was in shotgun, started to answer. "You may not realize it, but the gods don't interact much with mortals. They like their privacy, Mount Olympus is in New York. We get too close, like maybe Virginia or something along those lines. They do something."

Bobby added, "We don't know what. The campers who get too close don't come back and if they do, they don't remember anything. We took that as a hint,"

Percy frowned and looked out the window. _Why would the gods do something like that? They've gone a bit too far with their privacy._

"So, Bobby. What's the plan when we get to Frisco?" The driver, DJ, a son of Mercury asked.

"Just drop us at the usual place."

"Lafayette Park?"

"Yeah." Todd and Gwen groaned.

"We're gonna spend forever in this car. If the quest doesn't kill any of us, the car ride will." Todd complained.

"Then shut up, Corpse Breath. Take a nap or something."

"I can't sleep in cars." Todd grumbled.

"Then shut up!" Bobby snapped. "Gods, you're so annoying in a confined space."

After a few minutes of silence, Percy thought that Todd had managed to fall asleep. It was quiet in the car besides the radio. Gwen was reading some book in Latin and Bobby was talking to DJ.

Percy was looking out the window when he heard 'Ninety-Nine Bottles of Beer on The Wall' being hummed.

"TODD!" Everyone shouted.

After an hour and a half of driving, they arrived at Lafayette Park. DJ managed to find a spot to park briefly. Todd was one of the first people out of the van.

"See, Todd? Was that so bad?" Gwen asked, amused.

"Shut up Gwen. It was horrible!"

"But nothing happened." Percy stated , a bit confused.

"Exactly!"

"Dude, what's your point?" Bobby moved Todd out of the way so he could get out.

"Nothing, nothing at all."

DJ rolled down the windows. "May the goddess Fortuna bare good will on your quest. You guys are gonna need it. Peace."

The park was green and hilly. Percy felt weird in the city. He kept staring at the little things.

"What are we gonna do now?" Percy asked as they walked through the park.

"First, we need information about the monsters that are supposedly rising. And anything else weird." Bobby answered.

"Where are we going to get information like that?" Todd asked, not really concentrating on the conversation.

"Las Vegas."

Gwen stopped and looked at Bobby. "How are we going to get there?"

"Peter, do you remember him?"

"He's here?"

"Who's Peter?" Percy asked, beating Todd to the question.

"Peter was a camper at First Legion. He graduated, and after his term in the army decided to help the campers on quests get out of California."

"Is it legal?"

"Todd," Gwen supplied. "When has anything we've done on quests been legal?"

"Touché, anyways. Go on."

Bobby waited. "Any more questions? No, good. Anyways, he owns a car rental near here. If we give him a few Aurei or cash he might let us use a car."

"Can any of us drive?" Percy asked, and was answered by silence. "Great. This guy is gonna lend us a car but no one can drive."

"Well, what about you?" Bobby retorted. "How old are you anyways? For all we know, you could be a tall twelve year old."

"I'm sixteen, how old are you?" Percy didn't want to fight with Bobby on this quest, especially if it means that one of them would die. He would rather have Bobby on his side than against it.

"Sixteen too, how do we know you're not lying?"

"Percy, Bobby. Stop fighting for one moment. Why don't we go see Peter and figure out who's gonna drive later, kay?" Gwen interrupted them.

Maybe it was because Gwen was the only girl in the group, or maybe it was because she could kick any of these guys' butts with missile weapons but Bobby and Percy stopped arguing.

Todd clapped his hands together, "Alright. Now that the toddlers have stopped arguing, Bobby, where's Peter's place?"

"A couple of minutes away. We should go there now before he opens."

"Follow the leader then."

"Percy, when was the last time you played that game?" Gwen dryly said.

"I dunno. Why?"

"Cause we're never going to be playing that."

"Ouch, I can see why you date her, Bobby."

"Shut up, Todd."

* * *

Peter's place wasn't that different from any other rental place. It had cars of various models. And a small building. There were no lights on, even though it was nine in the morning,

"That's odd. The place should've been open by now." Bobby didn't like that.

"Maybe he slept in or something." Percy suggested.

"Not if you wake at six since you were two." Bobby replied, "But maybe that could be it. You haven't seen what a couple of days of sleeping in can do to you."

"Then let's go and knock on the glass. Not it!" Todd clarified.

"Not it!"

"Not it!"

"Shoot, I'm _so_ glad that we solve decisions doing that." Percy muttered. He adjusted his teal backpack and walked toward the small building.

Percy could see really awesome cars in the window. He knocked on the door and then the window. He waited a few minutes and nothing happened. Turning toward the others, he gave a shrug and the head shake that meant _'He isn't here.'_

A very warm hand grabbed his shoulder. "Can I help you?" The voice was very deep and had a heavy Italian accent.

Percy wanted to squirm for some reason but the hand wouldn't let him. "Uh, hi. We were wondering if Peter was here."

"You're friends with Piero?"

Percy swallowed, "Uh, yeah. Me and my friends were wondering if we could talk to him."

"Where are you friends?"

"They're..uh, waiting in the parking lot." Percy caught a glimpse of the hand. It was a ridiculous shade of orange. _What urged him to turn himself into a walking orange?_

"I'll go get them and you go inside." The owner of the voice turned Percy to face the door and let go of his shoulder.

Inside of the building felt like it was the middle of the day, it was really warm and humid. Percy couldn't see a light switch on the walls.

Percy saw one of the nicer cars in the building.

It was his dream car.

Or at least that's what his mind told him.

The car was a red convertible Maserati Spyder. The roof was up and the paint was flawless. Percy ran his hand lightly over the hood. It was slightly warm but heck, everything in the building was warm. Percy was starting to sweat.

"…I see. Piero is not here, unfortunately."

Bobby nodded slightly, his face saying that he didn't believe it one bit. "So where is he?"

"I do not know," Percy turned and saw the largest guy he had possibly ever seen in his life. "He said that something had come up and left last week."

The dude must've been at least seven feet tall. He was bald and had bright orange skin. His eyes were beady and black. He was wearing an Italian suit that reminded Percy of someone who reminded him of death.

"Alright…we'll just leave and come back later. Can we get your name? Percy, come on." Gwen looked at Percy and nodded at the door.

"Cal. May I also get yours? So I know who to mention when Piero comes back."

Bobby answered before Gwen opened her mouth. "Just tell him that Bobby and some friends just stopped by. Percy, come on."

Cal turned toward Percy. He grinned toothily. _He really needs to brush his teeth. Even his teeth are orange._

"Percy, is it? What an odd name. I see you've been admiring the Spyder, that car brings in a lot of customers. Would you like to sit in it for a few minutes before you leave?"

Percy glanced at Bobby and Bobby gave him a look that said _Hurry up._

"Sure." He answered.

Cal pulled a set of the car keys out of his front pocket and unlocked the car. "You have a nice taste in cars, Percy."

Even the inside of the car was warm. It also smelled weird too, like burned clothes. Percy sat down and Cal closed the door.

He felt excited to be in his dream car. It started to get warmer in the car. Percy was almost uncomfortable.

"Uh, Cal? Why is it so-" The click of the locks clicking into place. The car was really getting hot now.

He tried to unlock the doors but to no success. "Cal! Unlock the doors!"

Cal grinned maliciously. "And lose my breakfast? I think not, Son of Neptune. Watching you burn slowly will be entertaining."

_"Burn?_ You're Cacus, the fire breathing giant. That explains your orange skin and why it's so hot in here." Gwen exclaimed, pulling how her bow.

Cacus turned to her, "Correct, Daughter of Apollo. You will burn in the brazen bull as well, after the boy."

Percy felt like he stuck his body in an oven. It was uncomfortable but it was getting warmer. He banged on the glass but it wouldn't break.

Todd tried to open the door but burned his hand on the metal. "Ow!"

Bobby and Gwen ducked when a plume of fire was shot from Cacus' mouth. "Don't try to escape. Everything is heated enough that a single touch will burn you. Surrender now."

"Never!" Bobby shouted. Todd had pulled out his Stygian Iron sword. It sizzled in the air.

"Then you will die!"

* * *

How was Bobby gonna defeat a fire-breathing giant when it was getting hotter every minute?

Todd was distracting Cacus with his sword. "Yo! Did you have an accident at the tanning salon? Cause you're colour is ridiculous!"

Cacus roared and the desk caught on fire.

"Gwen, did anything in your mythology book say how to defeat this thing?" Bobby took off his shirt and wrapped it around the hilt of Acris.

"I think," Gwen panted, "That Hercules strangled him so he couldn't get oxygen to fuel his fire."

Bobby looked around for something to use. "Gwen, try to get Percy out of the brazen car before he catches on fire. I've got a plan."

Gwen wiped the sweat off her forehead and nodded. "Got it. Try not to get burned."

"Same for you. Go! While Todd had Cacus' back turned."

Gwen crouched and ran through the burning debris.

_Now, I just need to find it._

* * *

"Percy!" Gwen shouted when she reached the Spyder. He didn't look to well. Covered in sweat and his clothes started to sizzle. Gwen could see him panting to get enough air.

He was trying to break the glass. For some reason it didn't melt. Gwen looked around for something to break the glass. She spotted a van that didn't look hot. Why wasn't it starting to melt?

"Percy, how long can you last?" It seemed like a stupid question to ask but Gwen needed to know.

Percy looked hurt but he held up five fingers. "Okay, I've got an idea, but put on your seatbelt. We don't want you dead."

Percy looked at her confused but complied. "Try not to get burned."

Gwen sprinted toward the van and touched it. It was deliciously cold. She tried the door and it was unlocked. She climbed in and took a moment to relish in the icy coldness of the interior.

She took a deep breath, "Okay. Let's see if Dakota's hot-wiring lesson actually works."

A few two minutes, (Gwen actually had to keep track. She didn't want Percy to die this early in the quest).

Thank the gods, the van started up. Gwen might not know how to drive but she had a vague idea of it. She moved the gear from P to D.

She was glad that the van was already facing the Spyder. She was low on time anyways.

Gwen slammed her foot on the gas.

* * *

Percy tried to ignore how the plastic of the belt started to burn. It was a miracle that the car hadn't caught on fire already. It was really hot and hard to breathe.

What was Gwen doing anyways? Percy wasn't even sure his five minute estimate was accurate. He had a feeling that the car was going to explode any minute. He could feel it in the car, or in the air. Or his nerves. They were as tense as Gwen's bowstring. He just was waiting for that explosion.

That's when his clothes caught on fire.

"Oh gods! Oh why now?" He exclaimed as he tried to pat the fires out.

Another smell joined the other smells of burning stuff. His head felt hotter than usual.

His hair was on fire now. Percy cursed in that language he knows and ran his hands through his hair. _This couldn't get worse._

On cue, Gwen's van slammed into the Spyder.

The belt that Percy had put on didn't do a thing. He went flying through the windshield and slammed into something hard and scalding hot.

Cacus roared as he stumbled. Todd backed up, his black and white hair was stuck to his face. "Percy! Nice timing!"

"Todd…" Percy groaned. "Shut up."

"Percy! Don't get off of him!" Bobby shouted as he came out of the back of the building. He was holding the chair that was used to tow cars.

Cacus was already trying to get up. Percy didn't know what else to do but pull the head back.

"Let go of me, filthy demigod! I will burn you to a crisp!"

Bobby wrapped the chain around Cacus quickly but Cacus shook both he and Percy off.

Gwen jumped when Percy landed on the hood of the van. She was trying to figure out how to move the van in reverse.

Once again, the van didn't take any damage.

Bobby was tossed into Todd. "Thanks for slowing my fall."

"You're welcome." Todd groaned. "Now get off and strangle the darn orange." He pushed Bobby off.

Cacus turned his attention to Percy and Gwen. He took a deep breath and Bobby figured out he was going to turn them to a crisp.

Percy, he could get less about but Gwen, _no one_ was going to hurt Gwen and get away for it.

Bobby scrambled for the chain and ignored the burns he got from it. he pulled hard and Cacus grunted. "Todd! I need help!"

Todd responded rather fast for a guy who had a hundred twenty pound guy land on him. "We pull on three" Bobby nodded and wrapped the chain around his arms. He gritted his teeth against the pain.

"One, two, THREE!" Cacus stumbled backward and made a horrible noise.

"THREE!" The second pull sent him to the ground and he tried to reach the chain.

"THREE!" Cacus jerked and turned into orange dust. The heat simmered down a little and it was silent.

Bobby and Todd removed the chains and hissed at the pain. They painfully walked to Gwen and Percy.

"Everyone not badly burned?" Gwen asked. She had the second amount of damage. Percy looked absolutely fine except for his shorter hair and burned clothes.

"Get in the van and cool down before eating ambrosia. We don't want to have anyone turn into ashes when we just stopped that thing."

"I'll drive." Percy volunteered before anyone could say anything. "Obviously, since Gwen just ruined my dream car."

"It was to save you!" Gwen protested.

"Yes, and thank you. I believe I can drive and I have the least amount of damage. Okay?"

No one protested him. Gwen moved from the driver's side to the passenger. Percy sighed heavily and got in.

The room's temperature suddenly rose. Todd looked at the pile of dust that was formerly Cacus. It was on fire and he could see the dust reforming.

"Uh, Percy. I think you should start driving. Like _now._"

"What do you mea-Oh."

The pile of dust roared. "Percy shifted to reverse. "Get in the van!" _Even in dangerous situations, that still sounds creepy._

"Bobby, did you see the driveway when you were looking for that chain?" Gwen asked as she buckled her belt.

"What?"

"That huge door to let the cars in!" _Did the heat do something to his brain?_

"Oh, it's on the other side of the building."

"Fantastic," Percy muttered. "Put on your seatbelts!"

He backed out of the Spyder and steered it in the direction of the growing pile of dust. Percy slammed on the gas and the van jumped forward.

Thank the gods yet again, the pile didn't grab at the van. And they didn't run into obstacles because they all burned to ashes.

Percy saw the garage door. "Gwen! Can you shoot the red button?"

"Got it! Just keep driving straight!"

Cacu's voice screamed "Bobby! Percy! You will pay for this! Curse you!"

"Great, another curse." Percy grumbled.

Gwen took a shot and aimed. The adrenaline must've been getting to Percy because he could've sworn that he saw the arrow shake a bit and barely it the button.

Percy looked at the rear view mirror and saw a half formed Cacus behind them, struggling to keep up.

"Hurry up, door." Todd prayed. "I don't wanna die yet."

They barely made it through the garage. The gods must've been on their side because there was little traffic.

A few anxious minutes of sifting through traffic and they made it far enough to park and take a rest and change clothes.

"Percy, I got a question."

Percy took a sip of nectar and glanced at Todd. "What?"

"What was it like to sit in that car? Ya know, before it started to cook you."

"Gods, Todd! Don't you ever think before you ask questions!" Percy exclaimed. Bobby and Gwen sighed heavily.

"Not often. And answer it."

"It was pretty sweet." Percy admitted.

* * *

**It's me again! With another fabulously long chapter. It's a four day break and that's how I got the time to finish this chapter.**

**How do you like it? Cacus was a real monster, by the way. I try to make this as accurate as possible...well, besides the injuries. Kind of, i don't think anyone besides Percy, Gwen or Leo could've survived being in that _hot_Spyder. Get it? Because it's a hot car and it was also burning hot? Ah, never mind. Pun jokes never work...shall we forget about that? Yes, no?**

**By the way, to those people who suggested that I move this story to the Heroes of Olympus section...I could not find it. I found it way earlier but now i can't. I've looked under The Lost Hero, Lost Hero, Heroes of Olympus. It's not there...so..shut up about it or tell me where i can exactly find it so i can take a look at it to see if it's worthy of this story...**

**Again, tell me if i mess up anything, especially the Latin. (This time, I used my Latin textbook, so it _should_ be accurate)**

**Next chapter: Las Vegas and togas!**

**Reviews make lovely presents for my inbox and teh various devices i check my inbox with!**

**Scribe of Stories.**

**Oh, PS. Reviewer Question(Which I know probably very few of you will answer but I'll try anyways): What would you pay Dakota to sneak in First Legion or What car would you rather be burned in?**

**I would pay for Vanilla Coke and Lay's Sour Cream and Onions.**

**Car? Well, If I _had_ to choose...it would be The Cayman R Porsche.**

**Now, to finally end this author note that half of you won't read. :D**


	8. VIII: In Which Togas Are Breezy

**_Chapter VIII: In Which Togas are Breezy_**

"So, you can actually drive." Bobby quipped after they left San Francisco.

Gwen rubbed her temples, _this is going to be a long ride._

"Do you want to try to drive on this highway?" Percy responded, a small hint of irritation in his tone. "I kind of don't want to fight while on a nine hour drive, if your battle crazed mind can understand that."

Bobby opened then closed his mouth, unable to come up with a response. _I really do hope he dies._

"Are you a bit irritated, Percy?" Todd said as he poked him. Gwen had volunteered to be in the back with Bobby, to save Todd from a painful, early death.

"No, I'm cool. I'm cool as a Hyperborean Giant in the middle of a blizzard. Where would you get something as ridiculous as that, Todd?" Percy sarcastically answered.

"You're tired, aren't you?"

Percy yawned. "Very, very tired. When we get to Vegas, I'm crashing as soon as possible."

"Can you stay awake for nine plus hours?"

Percy glanced sideways at Todd. "Yes."

Todd turned his head to the back of the van. "Gwen, how long?"

"I give him two hours. Two and a half tops."

"Wanna bet on that?"

"Two Aurei."

Todd shook Gwen's hand. "Deal."

Percy rolled his eyes and tried to concentrate on the road. He felt weirdly exhausted. Like he knew he was very tired but he could ignore it for the time being.

"Why are we going to Las Vegas again?" he asked.

"We need information about these ancient monsters that Lupa talked about. Las Vegas is the place for it." Bobby replied.

"Why?" Gwen asked.

"There's someone the Mars Centuria know that has the connections and the information we need. His name is Caligula."

"Like the insane Roman Emperor?" Percy decided to put his two cents in before they started to talk about stuff he didn't know.

Bobby gave Percy an annoyed look. "Yes, but he wouldn't like it if you compared him to that guy. He wasn't really insane, just cursed."

"Is there a difference?" Percy wanted to know, since for some reason the word 'curse' wouldn't get out of his head.

"Sometimes. I think Caligula insulted Neptune or something like that and that's why he put a horse as one of his advisors before he was killed."

"Oh."

"I wonder why his parents named him that." Todd mused.

"Why think that, Todd?" Percy asked, rubbing the tired out of his eyes.

Gwen answered before Todd could open his mouth again. "Since the Roman gods are real and all of that stuff, the names of the people they involve themselves with are 'cursed' in a way. Whoever is named after them will usually have the same fate as the original owner of the name."

"The thing is, most mortals don't know about the whole cursed name thing, which is bad for us demigods." Todd finished, sucking on a red lollipop he mysteriously pulled out of his pocket. "Since most Roman heroes don't exactly have a 'happily ever after.' ending."

Bobby finally joined in the conversation. "Except for Perseus, Son of Jupiter and a few less known others."

Todd clapped Percy's shoulder. "Lucky you. Being named after that guy, he gets on the good side of most of the gods and gets the girl as well."

Bobby snorted, "It probably won't work as well since Percy is the son of Neptune and not Jupiter."

"Better than being betrayed, cursed or killed, isn't it?" Todd responded cheerily.

_I surely hope so, _Percy thought as he watched the roads.

* * *

"Percy, I'm hungry!" Todd complained around one.

"Well, Todd. What do you want me to do about it? Snap my fingers and make a cheeseburger appear out of nowhere?" Percy sarcastically replied.

"That would be nice."

"I'm not a god, Todd. But say this, the van's getting low on gas, and I'm pretty sure that whenever there is a gas station, there is food."

"So we're stopping, right?"

"No Todd, we're just going to keep driving until the van stops in the middle of nowhere."

"You're really sarcastic when you're tired, you know that, right?" Todd muttered.

Fifteen minutes later, Percy pulled into a gas station. He yawned as everyone else got out of the van.

"Why am I so tired…?" He mumbled. Even breathing exhausted him. He had to stay awake, at least till Vegas.

_I remember Achilles. Whenever the lad wasn't fighting, he was sleeping. He must've taken twenty naps a day. You, Percy, need your rest._

The voice sounded familiar and brought a feeling of being safe.

Percy knew he couldn't sleep yet, for one thing, Bobby won't let him.

He made himself get out of the van and join the others, after he filled the van's tank.

"About time you joined us," Gwen said once Percy joined them.

Percy stuck his tongue at her and sat down beside Todd. "I see that Todd has influenced you in the confined space of that van."

"Sure, pick on the guy whose father can control death. What a smart idea." Bobby roller his eyes and took a bite out of his sandwich.

"It's not like he'll ever care for you, Todd. You just visited him once and that was it." Bobby stated.

Percy looked at Todd, tilting his head slightly. "You visited your father?"

Todd didn't seem too happy that the subject had stayed in the conversation. He nodded once. "When I was ten, he let me visit his palace. A very dark and gloomy place to be, especially the fields of Asphodel and don't get me started on the Fields of Punishments."

Those names gave Percy a bad feeling. "Why did he let you visit?"

"I dunno. He wouldn't tell me. Got something cool out of it."

"Todd, don't speak of that gift in that way. Be respectful that you actually met your parent." Gwen reprimanded.

"Sorry, Gwen." Todd didn't look that sorry at all.

Gwen didn't understand why Todd treated all of this so casually. A visit from their godly parent and a gift, most campers would kill for that.

"So…what did you get, Todd?" Percy slowly spoke, wary of Gwen.

"You know Pluto's Helm of Darkness?"

Before Percy could answer, Bobby interrupted him. "I think we should be going now," Bobby's tone was terse.

Todd gave a glance at Bobby, eyebrows raised. Something passed between the two and Todd nodded. "Yeah, we can talk about this later. We should get going."

_I can never keep up with these guys. _Percy thought as he followed Gwen back to the van. He didn't notice that Gwen had stopped and almost ran into her.

Gwen grabbed his shoulders and shushed him. She murmured, "Three of them, just our luck."

Percy turned his head and looked at the van.

On top of it were three amber scorpions. The stingers were as long as Bobby's gladius, which he had pulled out.

"If we had more campers, we probably could take them on." Bobby muttered, keeping quiet. He hated bugs almost as much as Kim did. These were like scorpions on steroids. They were about the same size as the van and including the tail, there were pretty tall. Even thinking about them gave Bobby the creeps.

"What do we do?" Todd asked, holding his Stygian sword.

One of the scorpions was on top of the van, acting like the leader.

"Percy, is the van on?" Bobby was tense, his grip on Acris making his knuckles white.

"No."

"Why not?"

"Well, we wouldn't want the van or the gas station to explode, would we?" Bobby clenched his teeth.

"Whatever, we'll distract them and you go turn on the van. Drive it out of their range."

"And then what?"

"I don't know yet. Squish them, obviously."

Percy nodded and pulled out Tempestas. He kept low and slowly moved toward the back of the van. These huge insects felt familiar to him. Something was nagging at the back of his mind. Something major happened with them, and the girl. Why was that girl everywhere?

The scorpions didn't notice him. They were too busy going after Gwen and Todd.

Percy hadn't seen Todd actually fight, whenever there was a fight, Todd simply disappeared.

* * *

He was so close the van; his fingers could feel the air cool.

Something alerted the leader that Percy was right behind them. Since the next thing he knew, there was a stinger in his stomach. Percy felt the force behind the attack. It didn't hurt; it just picked him up and threw him to the front.

He forced himself up and put a hand on his stomach. His shirt was just ripped. _Jeez, I'm going through shirts like they're nothing._

Percy felt weird. Not because he had a mouthful of dirt or anything like that. He felt energized.

"Percy! You okay?" Todd helped him up before stopping one of the scorpions from clipping his arm off.

"The taste of dirt is horrible but I'm fine."

"Good help me then, since I'm pretty sure they only want you."

* * *

"Why are they only following Percy?" Gwen asked when she saw Percy being flung back from the van.

"It's Percy, Gwen. He's bound to be a tasty morsel for monsters." Bobby muttered.

"Then they shouldn't be after Todd as well? As far as I see, they're completely ignoring him."

Bobby didn't like the assumption that Gwen was making. "There's more to Percy than he's telling us."

"True, but first let's get rid of the bugs. They give me the creeps."

Gwen chuckled slightly and looked around for something to use. The gold armour of the scorpions can't be pierced very easily. _We're going to need a lot of force to weaken the armour…_

"There!" Gwen turned Bobby's head toward the side of the diner. A billboard was on top of the roof. It was old and the cables supporting it were rusting. "We can weaken the armour with that. Or if we're lucky, it would just kill them."

Bobby nodded, "I'll climb up and cut the cables." He strapped Acris back and headed for the building.

Gwen pulled how her bow and arrow. "Percy! Bring the scorpions over here!" She couldn't see Todd, _Probably using that fabulous gift of his. _During battle, Todd could truly be an enemy that no one wanted, especially with that gift.

If Gwen thought about it, she hasn't seen Todd fight without using that gift even once.

_I wonder why he uses it so much._

* * *

Percy back up even more to dodge the stinger. It was pretty difficult, since the gold armour shined brightly in the sun.

He felt slightly frustrated, since he couldn't actually attack without exposing himself, though a tiny part of Percy wanted to fight recklessly.

Finally, Percy was where Gwen told him to be. Gwen was right beside him, "Stay right beside me if you don't want to be crushed."

"What do you mean-"Percy turned back to see the billboard come falling down onto the scorpions. "Oh."

Bobby jumped down from the roof. "Bugs give me the creeps. Let's get out of here before we have to find out it didn't kill them."

"Where's Todd?" Gwen looked around.

"He's right by the van." Todd responded. "Sorry I had to leave, if you were going to make that much noise; someone had to distract the people inside. Let's go before the speakers break."

"What?"

* * *

Now that they were back on the road again, Todd had time to think about his dream. It bothered him more than it should.

_Why did the voice tell me that I'm not the only child of Pluto? As far as I know, Father isn't very much of a social butterfly. If there was another child, Lupa would've sent someone to get them. Unless they know shadow travel. They'd have to be pretty powerful to be able to do that a lot. Even one trip makes me sleep for three days._

Todd pulled out another lollipop from his pocket. _Grape, I'm gonna need to get some more. But, back to the thoughts at hand._

That kid, who was he exactly? Todd felt that he was looking in the past. Even though he had spent all of his time at First Legion, he wasn't exactly friends with everyone.

After all, it took almost six years for Jason to actually talk to him. Todd watched the empty land as they drove closer to Vegas.

_Even if that kid is my possible brother, he's gonna have to go down. Survival of the fittest, after all._

Todd chuckled. _This is gonna be fun._

* * *

Gwen couldn't concentrate on reading. She kept thinking about the monsters they fought. _I'm not sure if the others have notice, but they started to reform almost as soon as they were killed. Is something wrong with Tartarus?_

Gwen closed her book and leaned on Bobby's shoulder. _None of this makes sense. But concentrate on one thing at a time, Gweny._

She glanced at Percy, who kept his eyes on the road. _Come to think about it, he hadn't gotten a physical yet. Lupa didn't even order one for him. He can't be in perfect physical condition. No one is. And yet…_

She narrowed her eyes. Percy's back wasn't against the seat, and he didn't look like he was forcing himself. _Is something wrong with his back? He hasn't even let anything touch his back._

She sighed and closed her eyes. _Nothing that a child of Apollo can't figure out._

* * *

Las Vegas finally came into view. _It doesn't look different. _Percy thought absently.

"So, Bobby. Directions please?"

"Look for Caesars Palace. If I remember correctly, it's by the mini version of the Eiffel Tower."

Percy rolled his eyes. "Very specific directions..."

"Percy, its Las Vegas. You don't need actual directions."

"What you do need," Todd absently murmured, staring out the window. "Is a parking space. A good one."

Bobby glanced at Todd. Since they left for the second half of the drive, he's been acting more…quiet. "We can just ditch the van. Caligula will supply us with another vehicle."

"Whatever you say, captain." Percy muttered, turning the van into the nearest parking lot. "Though I hope we can rest for a while. I'm getting tired of driving."

"You've some good stamina, Percy. If it was me, I would've passed out back in San Francisco." Gwen looked up from her book.

"You're just saying that because you lost two Aurei." Todd chuckled. Gwen stuck her tongue at him.

"Whatever Todd. At least I can admit defeat. Men can never admit defeat."

"I don't know the meaning of the word defeat." Todd scoffed.

"Exactly."

Once in front of Caesars Palace, Percy began to have second thoughts about this Caligula. "Why is he in a casino hotel?"

Bobby craned his neck to see the top of the building. "This building contains some Roman culture. Caligula has been around a long time. As different countries come in power, the gods move accordingly. Caligula moves as well, usually where there are a lot of people willing to do a lot for their desires. In the US, it's Vegas. But there are other places as well."

Percy frowned a bit. "Is that why there are hints of Roman culture in the modern world?"

"Yeap. And a bit of Greek."

Todd put his hands behind his head, "Enough blathering about this. Can we just get in? I really need a bath."

The scent of cigars, alcohol and cigarettes filled Percy's nostrils as they went in. they got wary stares from the guests and gamblers.

They stayed near the entrance as Bobby went up to one of the concierges. The concierge didn't look too happy when he saw Bobby. Bobby whispered something in his ear, and then he took off his coat and showed something on his arm. The concierge's eyes widened and he bowed.

Bobby walked back to the group. "Come on, we've to follow the concierge." He slipped on his jacket and moved some of his hair back. It was starting to get into his eyes.

They followed the concierge through various gambling floors and past a huge wall of TVs that showed various sports games, a hall full of high class stores.

The concierge led them through a door that was marked with an 'Employees Only' sign. The hall was dark and wide enough for only one person. Percy felt claustrophobic a bit.

Turning left, it led them to an elevator. The concierge bowed "The elevator will lead you to the topmost floor where Caligula will be waiting to meet you."

"Thank you." Gwen told the concierge as he left.

The elevator music could've been better; Percy thought to distract himself from the tight space. "Percy, you look a bit nervous. Not claustrophobic are you?" Todd snickered.

"Just a tiny bit. " He admitted.

Bobby snorted quietly. "What a stupid fear, being afraid of small spaces. If you compare everything to the outside, everything is a small space."

Percy rolled his eyes. "I'm not extremely claustrophobic."

The elevator dinged and the doors opened.

The walls and floors of the hallway and the room that it led to were a bright blood red colour with gold columns. The floors were so shiny that Percy could see his face in the tile reflection. The hall was lighted by the columns.

"Caligula must love the colour red." Percy muttered as he walked behind the initial group.

At the end of the long hall, there was a circular room with three separate hallways. The lighting of the halls only let him see a few feet into each hall.

Percy started to hear footsteps coming from one of the halls. They weren't normal footsteps, they sounded like the person was barefoot and not at the same time. _Wait, how am I able to tell that?_

"Welcome." A reptilian voice greeted from the middle hallway. The man looked like a Komodo dragon standing on two legs. His scaly skin was a dark green colour and his eyes were an egg yolk yellow. He was wearing a solid purple toga, embroidered with gold on the edges. "You must be with Reuven here." He gestured to Bobby.

"Hello, Caligula." Bobby spoke after he bowed. Caligula smiled in response, his teeth were sharp, serrated and really didn't give the welcoming feeling. "I apologize for not sending a message earlier; we were caught up in a fight."

Caligula tilted his head, his yellow, forked tongue flicked as he spoke. "Did you win?"

Bobby smirked. "Of course."

Caligula glanced at Percy, his yellow eyes narrowed a bit before greeting him. "Ahh, The child of Pose-Neptune. I have heard great things about you."

Percy's eyebrows furrowed, _I did great things? _ But before Percy could ask, Caligula turned and began to walk back down the middle hall. "You are just in time for dinner. Please change, resupply before you come to dinner. My servants will help you as needed."

As soon as he said that, four, small servants appeared at each of the doorways, including the one where they just came from.

Gwen picked the one where they just came from, feeling a bit comforted since that servant was a female.

Todd picked the servant on the left, since Bobby picked the one in the middle.

Which left Percy the one on the right.

He noticed almost immediately that the servant was actually a child. He only went up to about Percy's thigh and had stark white hair that kept getting into his ice blue eyes. He wore a simple, beige tunic and dark brown sandals.

While walking down the immense hall, Percy couldn't help but ask "Why are you here?"

The boy replied monotonously "I belong to Master Caligula."

"What about your parents?"

The hallway stopped at a circular room with a round pool with steaming water. "This is where you can wash in privacy. Call if you need me. My name is Bora." He walked down the hall they came from.

The warm water and steam relaxed his tense muscles. _I've only been away from camp for a day and I'm already dead-tired. Imagine in two days or a week._

Percy sighed and closed his eyes. _Why does Las Vegas make me wary? All I can remember is some stupid flower and video games._

After a few minutes of resting his mind and washing his body, he grabbed a towel and wrapped it around his waist.

* * *

Maybe it was something in the water or steam or maybe it was his senses that alerted him that something was in the room with him.

Percy turned around and nearly jumped out of his towel. The leftover steam had formed some fort of thick cloud and there was a lady with chocolate brown hair and gold ribbons braided into it. She looked very serious and someone you don't want to mess with.

"Well, you fared better than I thought you would." The woman's voice was soothing, like a mother's voice to her frightened child. _She doesn't seem very motherly though._

"Uhm, thanks?" Percy had no idea how to respond to this lady. The cloud started to dissipate for a moment.

The lady sighed, "I do not have enough time with my husband's idiotic rule. Before you leave Las Vegas, I advise for you to take something cooling for your journey."

"Something cooling?" _That's very specific… _The lady nodded.

"I suppose you can't tell me exactly?" Percy asked, a bit irritated all of a sudden. That familiar feeling returned, along with a feeling that Percy didn't really like this woman.

The woman scowled briefly before returning her face to normal. "No, the Fates and the Ancient Laws forbid it."

"Ancient Laws?..." All of this sounded familiar to Percy, just on the tip of his tongue.

The bottom half of the cloud disappeared, leaving only the top half of the women. "Curses. My time has run out. I'm gonna have to talk with Hermes…"

The rest of the cloud disappeared before Percy could respond. He rubbed his head, "I'm probably going insane."

"Sir?" Bora asked quietly. "The water has cooled, so I thought that you were done and needed your clothes." In his arms, he carried a bundle of white cloth. _How long has he been there? I didn't even hear him._

"Clothes? But that's just a gigantic piece of cloth."

"It's a toga." Bora stated.

"A toga?"

"I'll show you." Bora's apathetic face flickered briefly into an amused one.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

"Well, sir? Is it comfortable?" Bora asked as he finished fixing the toga.

"It's…" Percy started, his cheeks warming a bit. The toga was white with purple stripes. It reached a little above Percy's ankles. "It has a lot of space below the waist."

"We do have some underclothes if you want." Bora suggested. Amusement was coating his tone

"That would be nice and don't call me lord." Percy muttered, trying to get used to the toga's limits and space.

"Why not, my lord?" Bora asked.

"I just don't like it. Call me Percy." Bora looked up at him as he fitted Percy's feet with shoes.

"Of course…Percy."

Percy's stomach growled at that moment. "I apologize for keeping you waiting. Please take your bag and follow me to the dining room." Bora murmured, getting up and bowing to Percy.

"Please, don't treat me like royalty. I'm far from it, actually."

"But you are the son of one of the Big Three, The Sea God. You're considered royalty if we were in Ancient Rome, even if you were illegitimate."

A thought popped into Percy's head as he followed Bora. "Wait, if you know all about this, does that mean you're a demigod as well?"

Bora's shoulders seem to hunch a bit. "I am, my lord. My mother was a goddess." His voice was quiet.

Percy slowed down a bit. _Why is he here then? _ "Why aren't you at First Legion then?" Percy paused for a minute. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

Bora looked back at Percy. His ice blue eyes reminded Percy of the grey sky reflected off of ice in the winter. "It's a question asked by a superior, I have to answer. My father sold me to Master Caligula before my required age of two."

Percy stopped in the middle of the hall. "Your father _sold _you?"

Bora continued walking down the hall. "Yes, this is what I have been told."

He jogged a bit to catch up with Bora. Half of his mind couldn't believe it and yet some part of him can. _What kind of father would do that to his own child, and so young? _

Bora stopped in front of a pair of mahogany, double doors. "The dinner is past those doors. I can't be in front of you."

Percy glanced at the doors and had a gut feeling that something is gonna happen because he went to this dinner. He took a deep breath and opened the doors.

The first thing he heard was Gwen giggling. He blinked, _Could this get any weirder?_ He spotted Gwen sitting on a couch. It looked like some sort of futon. She was wearing a dress with ribbons sewn in as some sort of belt design. He remembered seeing a few of those in the Mercury Caput tabernaculum, Dakota called them _lectus triclinaris_. A yellow-orange shawl was wrapped around one shoulder. The way that Gwen was laying made it difficult but it seemed that were was a separate cloth folded along her upper chest.

Both Todd and Bobby looked the same as Percy. He apparently missed some sort of joke because Caligula was also smiling. Though his smile was creepy, it looked like he was baring his teeth to his prey. "Ahh, the son of Neptune finally appears. I expected you to be later than this. How unpredictable."

_I'm pretty sure that was an insult. _Percy thought as he blushed lightly and sat down by the lectus triclinaris, the only one available was by Caligula. Todd was on the other side of Caligula, followed by Bobby. Gwen was on his side.

"Now that everyone is here, we can start _cena_." Caligula clapped his hands and the servants brought plates of delectable food and goblets of drinks.

Bora stood behind Caligula, holding a wine bottle. His face held no emotion as he poured a glass for his master.

_Just like Dakota told me, _Percy thought as he looked at the food. _No utensils besides the ligula and cochlear. Those lessons actually came in handy. _He grabbed some baby back dry ribs.

"What is the reason for this visit, Reuven?" Caligula asked once everyone had started eating.

Bobby swallowed; deciding to ignore the fact Caligula called him by his full name. "We were wondering if anything weird has happened in the country. Lupa told us that ancient monsters are on the rise."

Caligula held out his cup for Bora to refill. "It is pleasing that you came to me for this information instead of following a _venti's _trail."

_A venti? They don't sound very friendly. _Percy thought. Though as far as he knew, there were never friendly monsters.

"However, 'there is no such thing as a free lunch' as the Greeks would say. What would you be willing to pay for this information?"

Bobby ran a hand through his hair, it was noticeably shorter now. "Well, what would you take?"

Caligula drank from his goblet. "It has to be equal to the information. I'm no cheater. Perhaps twenty-five Aurei? Or maybe doing me a service."

_Twenty-five Aurei? That's a lot. _Todd thought. He was by no means a miser. Twenty-five Aurei was about a fourth of their Roman cash, some magical services weren't cheap. And there could be other things that require payment, like some monsters would leave you alone for a couple of Aurei.

Bobby began to pull out the bag containing the Aurei when a servant entered the room, looking nervous and scared.

"Master Caligula? Deep apologies for interrupting the cena but the gladiator you had requested for tonight's entertainment had died of mysterious circumstances." The servant quietly spoke, wringing his hands.

"Died? What a pity, I was hoping to see the skill of the newest gladiator." Caligula murmured, clearly not bothered by the death. He actually seemed to be disappointed.

"I could take the place of the other gladiator, Caligula." Bobby spoke up, his hands still in the toga pocket. "That is, if that is an equal payment for the information."

Caligula looked at Bobby, and then smiled toothily. "Of course. It has been a long time since I've seen a child of Mars battle. Go with the servant and prepare."

Bobby handed the pouch with the Aurei to Todd and got up. He bowed before leaving with the servant.

The way Caligula smiled bothered Percy, like he planned it all out. Caligula turned his attention to Percy, "So, Percy, how do you like being at First Legion? Is it still as intense as when I went there?"

_How did he know my name? _ "It's hard but you get used to it." Percy answered.

"Have you seen a par mortis yet?"

"Par mortis? What's that?"

Caligula motioned toward Todd. "I believe one of the _children_ of Pluto can explain it."

Todd sighed, looking like he'd rather insult a child of Venus than explain. "A par mortis is a fight to the death. A challenge can't be ignored, unless you prefer exile to an 'honourable' death."

Percy gave an incredulous look to Todd. "And Lupa allows this at _camp_?"

Todd shrugs and took a bite of a light green pear. "Honour is important for the Romans. If a death would keep honour, then a death it is. It rarely happens at camp. If it is, it's a spectacle."

Percy felt appalled. This felt wrong for some reason, too cruel for him. Gwen spoke up, "It's usually a thing that the Mars Centuria does. They take the whole honour thing pretty seriously."

Percy saw the annoyed look on Todd's face. _He probably doesn't like the whole death part. Hades didn't like death a lot himself._

Hades? Where did that name come from? And how in the name of Jupiter did he know that about Todd's father? Percy shook his head to clear his thoughts.

"It is almost time for the gladiator battle. Why don't you three go to the arena before me? I have some business to take care of. My servant Bora will show you the way." Caligula said as he got up and left the room.

The servants besides Bora brought bowls of water and towels so they could wash their hands. Bora gave the wine bottle to an older servant and waited by the door, he looked worried. He bowed at the waist. "Are the masters and the mistress ready to leave?"

"Yeah. I'm assuming you're one of Caligula's personal servants?" Todd asked as Bora opened the mahogany doors.

"Yes, sir. I'm the youngest servant." Bora replied.

"I like your hair, is it natural?" Todd asked, twisting a piece of his own white hair.

"It is. One reason that Master Caligula picked me was because my hair stood out." Bora quietly replied.

"Are you a demigod?" Gwen was more relaxed when Caligula wasn't here. _He gives me the creeps, and not just because he's basically a lizard. _She thought.

"I am." That ended the conversation as Bora opened a pair of doors. _This place is huge. How can the people not notice this on top of a casino? _Percy thought as he stared in awe at the arena.

* * *

**Still there? I know i haven't updated in two months. This chapter was harder to type than i thought. This is more of a filler since nothing exciting really happened. I am not happy with this chapter. Anyways...**

**I _might _post another chapter this week since it's Spring Break...buh i do have a lot of homework to do...**

**While writing this chapter, i was thinking about posting a few mini-stories/oneshots (a chapter long) to keep you guys entertained while i finish the main plot chapter (So stuff like not updating in two months happen, cause i would like for this fanfic to be done before _The Son of Neptune _comes out). Like how Jason and Todd met, a game of Sabotage or something along those lines, maybe even what Jason, Leo, Piper and the rest are doing during this time (This takes place after _The Lost Hero) _What do you guys think? Yes, no? If yes, suggest your idea for a mini-oneshot in a review or PM**

**Also, I'm doing some editing with the previous chapters along the lines of grammar, accuracy and other stuff, so let me know if something doesnt make sense. **

**Reviews make a lovely present for my inbox!**

**Review Question- Would you participate in a _par mortis_ or be exiled? If you had to, of course.**

**P.S. Also, if you dont mind, would you readers who have updating stories and who love this story mind spreading news of it? (I felt so fake when i typed that..)**


	9. IX: In Which Reality Is A Nightmare

**_Chapter IX: In Which Reality is a Nightmare_**

Bobby ignored the jeers and insults of the various gladiators stuck in their cells as he was led to the armoury.

"Picking out your new bet?"

"Pick the centaur! They're an easy kill!" The cells erupted with cruel laughter. "Why don't you volunteer yourself?"

Bobby scowled and followed the servant.

"You shall be a _Dimachaerus_. I presume you understand the rules?" The male servant said.

Bobby grinned a bit; he liked fighting with two weapons. "Yeah, I understand. Just give me my armour and weapons."

The servant led Bobby into a changing room and nodded. "Yes, sir."

Bobby yawned and cracked his knuckles. _Too bad Todd hadn't volunteered, if it wasn't for that shoulder injury. He would have been up for the intense, gladiator fighting._

The servant came back, handing Bobby the swords and placed the armour on the small table in the corner of the room. He grabbed both of them and swung them around.

"You have a few minutes to prepare while the Bestiarius is fighting."

"Alright," Bobby said, slightly excited to be fighting someone of possible higher calibre than himself.

The servant bowed and left. "I wish you that the Goddess Fortuna is smiling upon you."

01010101010101010101010101010

The arena was a shrinked version of the Coliseum in Rome, but less in ruins. Gwen was surprised that the mortals did not notice this. _Sure, they aren't the best when it comes to seeing deeper than their vision lets them, but come on. There is a freaking arena on top of a casino. One of them is bound to notice._

The arena was already starting to fill up with monsters, demigod servants and if Gwen's eyes weren't lying, she could see a few mortals in the seats. The monsters made Gwen nervous; she couldn't bring her bow and arrow. She could clearly see how the demigods, mortals and monsters separated, as if there was a physical wall between the groups. _Clearly because the monsters must work for Caligula, or they are just here for the blood._

Gwen stumbled and Percy caught her before she fell. She blushed slightly; Gwen was not used to wearing dresses. _How can any girl stand to wear such a limiting piece of clothing?_

Bora led them to one of the best places to watch the battles, the ringside seats by the box for the emperor. Gwen saw that the sand on the arena floor was dirty and soaked with blood. It seemed that a fight had just finished, the crowd was calling for more. Some of the servants were cleaning the pool of blood to the best of their ability and two others picked up the armour leftover from the monster that had fought.

The knot in Gwen's stomach tightened with the mere thought of Bobby in that arena, fighting to the death against someone of higher skill or a monster. _No, I'm just being a worrywart. Bobby can take on almost anyone. Still, first Jason disappeared and if Bobby dies…_

Gwen forced the thought from her mind.

"Mistress, do you need a drink? You are looking a bit pale." Bora murmured, looking concerned. "If the mistress cannot watch the entertainment…"

Gwen shook her head. She was going to watch this. After all, she is a First Legion Praetor; she wouldn't hear the end of it if she missed an opportunity to watch this. "No, I'm fine. Thanks for your concern though." Bora nodded and went back to his spot.

Gwen played with a piece of her hair, a habit she does when she's nervous. She watched the arena as a Chimera walked into the arena.

She had never seen a Chimera before. _A bit scarier than what my book said, but monsters are always scarier in person. _The sand absorbed the blood dripping from its mane. _I would hate fighting that monster by myself._

The Chimera roared (If Gwen's ears were working admist the loud crowd, it sounded like a bark) at a male adult with a whip. The snake-tail tried to bite the trainer and Gwen saw how instinctive the trainer was when he deflected the snake.

That was the fight. The Bestiarius was almost killed when the Chimera spitted fire.

Gwen could see the people in the crowd make bets. _Bobby's fight must be up next. _She looked toward her companions. Todd looked slightly interested and sleepy. Percy looked, well, he didn't look sick but he didn't look healthy. _Well, this is his first gladiator fight._

The crowd silenced briefly as Bobby and the other gladiator came into the arena. Compared to Bobby, the gladiator was a monster. Bobby was six foot and this guy towered over him. Bobby was somewhat lean and the guy looked like he was on steroids. _This cannot be good..._

* * *

Even though Percy still had some doubts about Bobby, he didn't want him to die. _This is so typical of an Ares child. Wait, Ares? I mean Mars. I really need to sleep…_

Percy felt tired but he couldn't sleep with the crowd's roaring in his ear.

Bobby and the other gladiator were circling each other, sizing them up. The gladiator's heavily scarred skin and malicious grin made him a terrifying person to look at.

Percy nudged Todd. "Why do they have two swords?"

Todd yawned, glancing at Bobby. "They're doing a _Dimachaerus _fight. It's mostly used for close combat and bloody fights. _Dimachaerus _fighters have to be extremely skill to use swords as an attack and defence weapon. Very few people at camp can do it."

"Who can?" Percy's interest in this type of fighting rose as he watched Bobby expertly deflect the sword like an actual shield. "I wanna learn this stuff."

"Me, Bobby, Jason and I believe Reyna is learning it if I'm correct." Todd said. "It's a bit difficult if you don't learn how to be ambidextrous."

"Ambi-wha?"

Todd imitated writing with a pen with both of his hands. "Able to use both of your appendages fluently and neatly. It's harder than it looks."

Percy nodded. "I'd still like to learn anyways." He could tell that Todd wanted to watch the fight rather than try to hold a conversation in the middle of a roaring crowd.

He turned his attention to the fight. Bobby's right arm was covered in blood and the other gladiator's left leg was limp. Both looked like they were far from done.

Bobby took a deep breath and ignored the faint taste of blood lingering on his tongue. He kept clenching his fists to make sure the slice the other gladiator gave on his upper arm wasn't deep.

This guy was tough, Bobby admitted to himself as he tried to cut the guy's throat. His grip on the right sword was slipping because of the blood.

The other gladiator took the hilt of the sword and rammed it in Bobby's chest. He staggered backwards, trying to catch his breath.

Bobby didn't see the sword come down on his clavicle. The pain surprised him; he had never received shoulder injuries. The warm blood felt foreign on his neck and chest.

He blindly kicked and felt contact and heard the semi-satisfying crack of a bone breaking. The other gladiator grunted in pain and backed up.

Bobby swung his sword and slashed at the guy's knees. The gladiator dodged swiftly. _Come on, Bobby. You're getting sloppy and in front of your enemy as well. _Bobby didn't have the time to see if Percy was watching, one millisecond off his current enemy and he could probably be dead. Well, if Gwen didn't kill him first from all the unnecessary injuries he's received.

Bobby wiped the sweat from his eyes and brow. The sweat stung the cuts on his hands.

He slammed both of his hilts into the gladiator's chest and slashed upwards. The force knocked the gladiator into the ground. Bobby placed a foot on the guy's chest and looked up at Caligula for the signal to kill.

* * *

Percy followed Bobby's gaze and watched as Caligula stood up. He didn't look pleased. The crowd went silent. _What's he doing? _A hollow feeling settled in his stomach as Caligula held out one hand, palm down.

Caligula gave a thumbs up and the crowd exploded with cheers and jeers. Percy looked back at the arena. Bobby had one of his swords in the air, above the guy's neck. _Wait, doesn't a thumbs up mean the fight's over? _The hollow feeling in Percy's stomach increased as the sword swung down.

Maybe it was some weird thing that demigods' ears do when someone dies, Percy didn't know but he could've sworn that he heard the sickening _SHLUCK _of the guy's head being sliced off.

_What had just happened?_

101010101010101010101010

Todd looked at Percy just as Bobby beheaded the gladiator. The look on Percy's face wasn't very reassuring. It looked like he was about to puke. His face was pale. At least he wasn't puking, that's a good sign.

Todd shook Percy's shoulder gently. "Yo, Perce. You okay?"

Percy blinked and took a couple of deep breaths. "F-fine." He looked far from fine. "Just a bit startled."

He didn't believe it but something told him that if Percy talked about it, well, whatever dinner Percy ate would come back up. "Fight's over. Come on, we better follow Gwen before we lose her."

Percy slowly got up and followed Todd. "Where did she run off to?" Percy's voice was quiet and in shock. Todd didn't blame him, very few people got through their first gladiator battle completely unbothered.

"Probably fussing/scolding Bobby."

"Huh." Was Percy's reply. _This must be bothering Percy a lot. As long he doesn't puke. _Todd remembered his first time watching a gladiator fight. It didn't bother Todd that much, after all, Death was his forte. He saw spirits almost every day of his life. What bothered him was how easily the winner killed the loser. It annoyed him how death was so easily taken. At least the mortals have some sense how serious death was.

They had caught up with Gwen, who was ordering the servants to get medical supplies as she removed the armour. "Bobby, if you weren't a child of Mars, I would've totally killed you. Right now."

Bobby chuckled slightly. "Stop fussing, Gweny. I've fared off in worse condition."

"Look at this clavicle cut! You better be thanking the gods that it wasn't as serious as Todd's shoulder injury." Gwen half scolded, hitting Bobby in the head.

Todd glanced at Percy, who was still by the doorway, staring at the floor. He was taking deep breaths; _at least he is breathing and not hyperventilating. Poor kid._

Gwen noticed Todd's silence and looked at Percy. A flash of sympathy appeared across her face before it disappeared. "Bora?"

"Yes, Mistress?" Bora stepped from his spot in the corner.

"Will you take Percy to his room for the night? Make sure he gets in bed before he collapses from shock." Bora nodded. Bobby rolled his eyes and scoffed under his breath.

Bora led Percy from the room. As soon as he was out, Gwen hit Bobby in the back of the head again. "Don't be like that. No one can exactly be like you. Give Percy a break."

Bobby hissed in pain as Gwen applied nectar to the cuts. "He's just watched you behead a guy for _entertainment_ you can't expect him to be talking about how the guy had it coming for him."

"He's sixteen, has a celestial bronze sword, and good fighter and he hasn't seen someone get killed? What kind of demigod is he?" Bobby asked rhetorically.

"Not a normal demigod. That's for sure." Todd answered.

Caligula walked in at that moment; there was something wrong about his pleasant look. "Ahh! Reuven, what an excellent job you did! I did not know you knew the _Dimachaerus _fighting style. Lupa seems to know what to teach at that little camp." Todd frowned briefly before putting a neutral expression on his face.

Bobby noticed the slight insult directed at Lupa and First Legion. "Thank you, Caligula. You picked an excellent fighter."

Caligula looked around. "And where is the son of Neptune?"

Gwen cleared her throat as she finished wrapping the bandage over Bobby's upper arm. "This was his first gladiatorial battle and well…he isn't faring as well as we thought. I sent him with Bora to lead him to his room."

Caligula nodded sympathetically. "I understand, after all, the camp does have its drawbacks. He hasn't spewed, has he?"

Gwen shook her head. "He just needs to think alone for a few moments. He will be ready to leave in the morning."

"About that, "Todd drawled. " What is the information that you promised?"

Caligula chuckled. "Ahh, straight to the point. One thing that the _children_ of Pluto have in common. There has been recent monster activity in the areas around Lewis & Clark National Forest in Montana and in Haleakala National Park in Hawaii."

"Thank you, "Gwen nodded once. " I guess we'll leave in the morning if that is okay with you?"

Caligula nodded and clapped his hands once. "Excellent. I hope you guys have the rest you needed. I presume you will need supplies?"

Bobby nodded. "Just a few."

"Excellent. I shall tell my servants to prepare the supplies. I hope your journey bodes well."

* * *

Bora watched as Percy sat on the bed, staring at the floor. He didn't like seeing Master Percy in this state. "Percy?"

Percy looked up, his eyes were faraway. Bora swallowed. "I believe that you should get some sleep before you leave in the morning."

Percy nodded and Bora left, unsure if Percy would actually get any sleep.

Percy didn't know why he was acting this way. _It's how the world works, people die in more gruesome ways. Its possibly worse for demigods, adding the factors of monsters and gods/goddesses out to get you, curses._

Percy didn't know what time it was. His instinct told him it was possibly early in the morning. Bora had said something about leaving in the morning. He should probably get the sleep he needed. _Why can't I stop replaying that moment? _

He remembered that the Romans were ruthless; at least that's what he inferred from watching at First Legion. After all, he's heard of kids younger than he was dying from exhaustion. He just never believed it. But now…

The feeling that he didn't belong returned. Percy changed into normal clothes; he didn't wonder how his backpack got in the room.

He never divulged in that feeling. It gave him a sense of foreboding, like if he was someone's pawn. Someone who was older, powerful and a Pluto of a eviler.

_I'm not going to get any sleep if I keep thinking about that. _He thought as he laid on the bed. He stretched and closed his eyes. He forced himself to relax.

The next thing he knew, he was asleep.

* * *

_Where am I? Percy thought. He didn't recognize where he was. It was really dark, cold and wet. Wait, wet? I'm not supposed to feel wet._

_Percy moved his arms. Something was stuck to them, like cold, sticky mud._

_Percy tried to get out of the mud. As soon as he tried, he felt like he was choking. Panic started to flow through his body, propelling him upward._

_After a few agonizing moments of choking, he burst through the surface. Percy gagged as he spat the mud out of his mouth._

_The sky was grey and there was mud everywhere. Absolutely no land or water as far as his eyes can see. The wind blew harshly and coldly. Percy shivered. Where_ _am I?_

_The wind carried a voice. "What do you plan to accomplish being pawns again? You don't belong with them. You don't need them. You are invincible." The voice seemed to come through the mud, vibrating through his skeleton. _

_Pawns? Percy was confused and just a tiny bit scared. He looked to the right and saw something green sticking out of the mud._

_Percy started to move through the mud. The voice continued, "Do you think you will actually make friends at the opposite?" he tried to ignore the voice. Opposite? What did she mean by that?_

_Something was sticking out of the mud. Percy grabbed for it. It was a curved horn, with a bit of dried blood at the tip. It burned Percy's hand and he dropped it. It sizzled as it sunk back into the mud. "The floor where you will step will be littered with the bodies of your friends and fellow demigods."_

_Percy had passed a thermos, a silver hairpin, a bronze spider, and a silver bracelet with a scythe charm. Every time he tried to pick it up, his hands were burned. Why were they here of all places? _

_The mud got thicker the farther he went. Pretty soon, he was practically swimming in it._

_Percy couldn't hear the voice anymore, the wind got louder. _

_He was a few feet away from the green thing. It was the tipoff the statue of Liberty, how he knew, he didn't know. A feeling of homesick erupted in his stomach._

_Then he noticed someone slumped on the torch of the Statue of Liberty. It was the girl he and Todd saw on patrol. She looked like she was sleeping._

_"Hey! Hey! Wake up!" Percy shouted. "What are you doing?" What was she doing here?_

_As he got closer, he noticed the girl wasn't actually sleeping. She looked like she had a fight with a Mars child and lost. Her arms were bruised._

_There was also a knife in her chest._

_Percy's blood went cold and he froze. "No, no, no, no." He muttered. Panic started to swell up in him. Why her? What happened to her? Who did this? Who was she?_

_Her blood dripped into the mud, turning it from a green brown to a blood red._

_He reached the edge of the statue and tried to pull himself up. Something stopped him, no matter how much he tried to lift himself, something was pulling him down. Anger filled him, blocking some of the panic. Who was stopping him from getting to this girl to help her?_

_The wind stopped and the voice returned. "You can stop this from happening. If you turn your back against the Queen of the Gods."_

_The Queen of the Gods? Percy didn't care what he had to so as long as that as long as the girl lived. The mud has started to pull him down and making him heavier. It was getting harder to move and get to the girl._

_"Just a simple pawn," The voice cooed mockingly. "When you could be so much more, what would be the point of saving your relatives when it's going to happen again?"_

_"The gods don't change, Son of Poseidon. When will you realize that?"_

_Percy choked on the blood red mud. He struggled to get the mud off him so he could get to that girl, whoever she was. He would do anything to stop that girl from dying._

_The mud pulled him deeper, his vision blurred._

_The last thing he heard was a female voice say in a scolding tone. "To save a friend, you would sacrifice the world."_

* * *

Percy fell off the bed and woke up. He was covered in a cold sweat and he was gasping for air. "What just happened?"

Percy removed himself from the tangle of sheets. He glanced at the clock, _five ten a.m.? How long I was asleep? _

Percy coughed and held his throat. It was scratchy, itchy and the taste in the mouth was like he swallowed a cupful of dirt. He remembered the dream and shuddered.

The water felt fantastic as he swallowed it. "Who is that girl?"

"What girl?" Bora asked, he stood by the bathroom door. He looked nervous and scared.

Percy jumped, knocking the glass to the floor. "Jeez! Bora, you scared me."

Bora bowed his head, "I apologize, Percy. However, this is urgent. You need to leave now."

He blinked, "Leave? What happened?"

Bora looked around, as if he expected someone to stop him. He was quivering in his sandals. "It's Master Caligula. He is very angry."

"What why?" Percy grabbed his bag, well, Caligula had it replaced with a Volcom checkered backpack.

"It was the fight sir. Master Reuven wasn't supposed to win. Caligula had a lot of money on the fighter Bobby killed…"

Percy slipped on his shoes, "Let me guess, he wants us dead?"

Bora nodded. "I have already warned the others, though Caligula will know someone told you."

"What! Why?"

Bora opened the door. "Because Caligula knows everything that happens. Your companions are waiting at the end of the hall."

Percy saw Gwen, Bobby and a sleeping Todd at the end of the hall. "What's going to happen to you?"

Bora shrugged. "I get killed." He still looked nervous. _Gods, I can't let a small kid die. I'm not totally in the mood to watch another death._

Something occurred to Percy, what that woman said to him in the baths. _Take something cooling. _Cooling?

Percy didn't have enough time to think this through. _Bora seems to have this calm, cooling persona about him. Heck, he's not even panicking at the thought of death._

"You're coming with us." Percy decided.

"What? I can't-" Bora started.

Percy shook his head. "Nope, that's final. You're coming with us. I'm not going to have a death of al little kid, one I can prevent in a way." He added, thinking of the little kids who die at First Legion.

"But-" Percy pulled him toward the others.

"Percy, what took you so long?" Gwen asked, kicking Todd awake.

Percy paused. "Nothing important. How are we leaving? Cause I'm pretty sure that Caligula won't just let us walk through the doors."

Gwen lifted Todd from the ground. "Quickest way possible. Which is where our friend, the son of death comes in. Shadow Travel."

Something sparked in Percy's mind. He saw a small boy with dark hair, he looked a bit like Todd and a freaking huge dog. Before Percy could grasp at the memory, it disappeared. "Shadow Travel? What's that?"

Bobby shook Todd, who was asleep. "Todd, wake up. Fish Face asked a question."

Todd jerked awake. "Wha? Oh, Shadow Travel, right. You- or I…" Bobby shook him again. "Uhm, I travel by the shadows, or wherever there's darkness. Very quick and efficient. Sometimes."

Gwen turned to Bora, who was keeping his head down. "Where's the darkest place on this floor?"

Bora answered immediately. "Three floors up. In the pool room."

"Good, Bobby, take Todd and make sure he stays somewhat awake."

Percy kept up with Gwen. "Why's Todd almost asleep?"

Gwen picked the lock to the stairway. "Child of Pluto thing. The powers he has requires a lot of energy. Child of the Big Three thing. Jason…" she swallowed. "Jason slept often, not as much as Todd. You seem to tie with Todd."

She opened the door. "And why is he practically asleep?"

Gwen answered. "Shadow Travel exhausts him more than anything. If he's half asleep, he's gonna to use less time sleeping."

"Where are we going?" Percy asked as he tried to keep up with Gwen on the stairs.

"Montana or Hawaii."

"Hawaii, I vote for Hawaii."

He held the door for Bobby and Todd. "Todd, you're really heavy."

Todd mumbled. "S'not my fault…"

Bobby sighed and rolled his eyes. "Whatever Todd. Percy, help me get Todd into the room. Get his legs."

Percy grabbed Todd's leg and moved the barely conscious Todd into the pool room.

The pool lights gave the room a slightly creepy look. There were two pools, one took three fourths of the room's space and the other was a hot tub. Besides from the pool lights, the room was completely pitch black.

"Kay, Corpse Breath." Bobby grumbled. "Let's get out of here quickly. Or I'll throw you into the pool." Percy let of his legs and Bobby shoved Todd. He stumbled and stood up.

"Is Bora coming?" He drowsily asked, stumbling to a corner of the room.

"No."

"Yes." Percy and Bobby spoke at the same time.

Bobby glared at Percy. "Why is he coming? He's of no importance."

Percy scowled. "Caligula's gonna kill him. I'm not gonna have Bora killed, especially since he helped us."

"Your point? He knew the risk of helping us. He's just gonna be more of a burden!" Something occurred to Bobby. He narrowed his eyes. "Is this your stupid way of coping watching your first 'mortal' death?" His tone was accusing.

"No! He's only five years old!" Percy clenched his fists. The pool water began to churn.

"It is and you know it! Who cares if the kid dies? If he comes with us, he might be killed by a monster or something like that. He's not going."

"It's not!" Percy almost shouted. He felt frustrated. The water began to spill over the edge of the pool, unable to hold the tension.

"Why not?" Bobby taunted. "Give me one good reason that we should take another burden when we barely started this quest."

"Burden? Who else is a burden?" Percy asked, half knowing the answer.

Bobby jabbed his finger at Percy's chest. "_You_ are! I don't believe this Minotaur crap that you don't remember anything. You're hiding something."

"I'm not and it's not a lie! I don't remember anything besides the fact that my name is Percy Jackson, I'm sixteen and that I don't belong here."

"He's not coming with us, Percy." Bobby ordered. "That's an order."

Before Percy could tell him to shove his orders up his butt, the doors burst open. Two armed women slithered in. They had scaly, green skin, two tails for legs and they weren't very attractive.

Percy waved his hand at them, his mind blank with anger. The water from the pool shot out at them. The force alone was enough to turn them into dust. The water flowed back into the pool, he immediately felt exhausted.

Gwen stepped in. "Guys, we have to go. _Now._" Her tone left no argument. She pulled Bobby and Percy toward the corner.

"We're going to-" Todd was interrupted by snarls. "Nevermind. Think about where we're going and just keep contact, kay? I dunno what'll happen if one of you guys lets go. And I don't wanna find out either."

Todd grabbed Bobby's wrist, Bobby took Gwen's hand, Gwen grabbed Percy's wrist.

Todd walked into the shadows, pulling the line. Percy resisted as much as he could and grabbed Bora's wrist at the last minute. _Screw what Bobby says, I'm not leaving Bora behind._

Gwen didn't expect the force of Shadow Travel. The wind roared in her ears and she felt like she was on a roller coaster going downhill.

Bobby's hand started to slip in Gwen's. Panicking, she tightened her grip but something was pulling her back. The force was strong and Gwen's hand slipped from Bobby's.

The feeling of being on a roller coaster changed to a feeling of falling. Gwen was still holding on to Percy.

* * *

Gwen was jerked and tumbled on something hard. She heard Percy groan and someone else yelp in pain. She opened her eyes and forced herself up. _Percy is gonna get killed when Bobby finds out._

"Bobby? Todd?" She called. No answer. Gwen tried to keep her panic down. "Percy?"

"Ughur. Here." Percy groaned. He was near Gwen, obviously trying to find the energy to get up.

"Bora?"

"Here, Mistress." Was his quiet, pained reply. Gwen looked at her surroundings. She appeared to be on a hiking trail, with lush, tropical greenery. She looked around for Bobby and Todd.

"Bobby! Todd!" Gwen called, feeling nervous.

"Mistress?" Bora called her attention uncertainly. "Percy doesn't seem to be awake anymore."

_"What? _Is he breathing?" Gwen kneeled by Percy, who was indeed unconscious. Gwen put her head against his chest, it was faint but he was breathing. She checked the pulse on his neck. Faint also. _What was wrong with him? He shouldn't be this faint._

"Percy?" Gwen slapped his cheek lightly. "Percy? Wake up!" No response.

"Great, "She muttered. "I have an unconscious demigod that I don't know why he's out, a servant and Bobby and Todd are probably lost or in Montana."

Gwen looked at the sky, the sun started to rise. It turned the black sky into oranges, pinks, reds and a bit of purple. It was a breath-taking sight. Bora quietly stared in awe. "At least the sunrise is beautiful."

Behind her, there was a popping sound. Gwen whirled around, her bow out and notched with an arrow. "Who's there?"

"My, my. I had never seen this situation before." A deep voice said from the greenery. "Aurora would like this."

* * *

Bobby spat out pine needles and shook his head. "Gods damn, Todd. Next time, don't land me in a tree."

Silence answered Bobby. _Right, Todd's probably out cold._

"Hey Gwen, Help me with Todd." Bobby looked for Todd.

Todd had fallen into a creek. Bobby rushed to the bank. "Crap, crap. Can't have hypothermia getting to you." Bobby pulled Todd out of the river.

Being in the middle of a forest with limited supplies is not a good thing. "Gwen, Percy? A little help?"

That's when he noticed that they were alone.

Bobby cursed in Latin. "Percy is so _dead_ the next time I see him."

Something cracked behind him. Bobby had his sword out, hovering over the unconscious Todd. "Who's there?"

There was a shout, sounding like rocks smashing together and something slammed into Bobby's head, knocking him out.

* * *

**Wassup my various demigods, scribes, gods, fauns, dryads, nymphs and monsters? How was the chapter? I think this is a good chapter. I've waited to write this chapter for a while, since i started_ First Legion. _**

**What do you think now that our lovely group has been separated? Predictions? Any grammar, spelling and other errors? Let me know in a review.**

**In _Interview with a Demigod's _AN. I mentioned an AU fic i was considering writing. It was inspired by the show _Dead Like Me. _And it involves Annabeth as she copes with her new life as a Reaper. It's gonna involve the whole Greek mythological world.**

**Here's the prologue**

_Being dead isn't all it's cracked up to be. _I thought as I stared at the small little, gray leather journal that Chiron gave me.

The first entry was in Central Park. A K.Z Eisner. Who loved to bike. And was going to die around 5:12 p.m.

I closed it and pocked the journal. It felt weird not having Percy around to figure out how to find this K.Z.

I jogged to Central Park. The weather was cool and mildly sunny.

Complete opposite of how I felt. _I'm a child of Athena, I shouldn't be nervous. I've watched Percy, Nico and Thalia do it. It should be very easy._

I sat down on a bench and watched the people pass by. Percy said that you'll know when it's your reap.

I sat there, thinking about math problems when an old guy sat down with me, propping his bike against the bench. I glanced at him. He was wearing one of those biker uniforms, the brightly coloured ones with various brands on it. His was a purple colour.

"Nice day out." I casually said.

The guy smiled a bit. "Sure is. I'm just resting a bit. Don't mind me." He checked his watch.

"What's the time?" I asked. Chiron and Percy told me the reaps usually appear near the time.

"Four thirty." _Damn, I'm not sure if this is the guy._

"Thanks." I watched the skies, _Why did everyone else make this seem easy?_

A cellphone rang. The tune was a piano riff. I kept my glance to sky as the old guy answered it. My reaper hearing caught bits of the conversation.

_"Hi Grandpa Eisner. When are you coming to visit?" _The voice was a little girl's. I hesitated, what would happen to the girl if this guy dies?

"Soon, after one more ride." K.Z answered cheerfully. "Tell your mother that, kay?"

_"Alright. Love you."_

K.Z. hung up and stood up, stretching. _Now's the time._

I stood up and walked, tripping on the bike. K.Z. caught me. I hesitated before running my hand his arm. He briefly glowed grey. He gave me a strange look.

I forced a smile. "Thanks." I pulled away. "Have fun with your ride."

K.Z. nodded and got on his bike.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a golden retriever running and a girl chasing it.

Even though I've seen pretty gruesome deaths with the other demigods, I couldn't watch as the dog ran in front of K.Z., making him swerve and fall off his bike. On his head.

I sighed as K.Z. appeared besides me. He looked at his body then back to me. "What are you?"

I turned and began to walk, K.Z. followed me. "I'm Annabeth and I'm a reaper."

**Like it, hate it? Tell me in a review. If this gets a good reception and does get posted, it's gonna be a secondary project until _First Legion _is completed. And if this gets completed in the time frame i want. It'll be the main project until i can get the sequel plot written and after reading _The Son of Neptune. _Suggest titles for the AU fanfic. i suck at titles.**

**I just revealed a spoiler...but yes! There will be a sequel to _First Legion_. After the publishing of _The Son of Neptune_, of course.**

**Review Question: Suggest some good PJO fanfics! I'm looking for some fanfics, suggest a title for my AU fanfic, or If you had to choose between taking Bora or leaving him, what would you do and why? What do you think Percy's dream signifies? **

**Remember, Reviews make lovely presents for my inbox!**


	10. X: In Which Curiosity Kills the Wolf

_**Chapter X: In Which Curiosity Kills the Wolf**_

Reyna watched the clouds dump buckets of rain outside the magical force that surrounded First Legion. She was supposed to be sleeping right now but…

She couldn't exactly sleep. It started happening a few days before Jason disappeared and it was worse when Percy had arrived. Now that he had left, it was back to getting four hours of sleep.

Reyna flashed her high power flashlight into the wet darkness. _Despite the Second Titan War being over, why are there still monsters and demigods disappearing? _It was peculiar; every couple of weeks, a demigod disappears. It always happened during the worst weather.

Before Jason disappeared, Lupa had ordered that no more running patrols were to happen. It was like a CSI case, the disappearings stopped. Until Jason disappeared.

Reyna ran her hand over the barrel of her shotgun, _Carpe Scientia. _She was the only one in First Legion to use a modern weapon instead of a normal one. She does have a sword, always on her if she ever ran out of Imperial Gold bullets (which were rare). Her ability wasn't only limited to shotguns, she could use almost any type of gun. She was currently working on a sniper rifle.

She yawned, flashing her light across the terrain; her light passed the moat that Percy had been 'tested' in. Something about the Neptune spawn bothered her.

_It's not so much that he's a spawn of Neptune, he's something. He already knew how to fight and if Bobby wasn't lying, he spoke Ancient Greek._

Reyna's mind started to work out the possibilities; so many theories went through her mind that she didn't notice the sound of something squishing in the rain.

It was near the cluster of trees that almost overlapped the moat. Her light showed a pile of mud that looked like it was moving.

"What the-"Reyna's sharp eyes noticed that it seemed to be climbing the tree. "What kind of monster is that?"

Reyna took a shot; it rang her ears and echoed in the wet night. _Damn, I really need to build a silencer on this. The whole legion must be awake._

The Imperial Gold bullet splattered some of the mud and destroyed part of the tree. The mud still kept crawling up the trunk, though at a slower pace.

Reyna scowled. "Monster's too spread out for a single shot. If it's so disperse, there must be a single, bulge where the nerve ganglia are…" She scanned the mud monster. It was a tan, moist brown and had grass, twigs and rocks in the mud, signalling that it travelled a distance.

She spotted a purple-greenish bulge near the centre before it was covered in the mud again.

As she took aim, the bulge suddenly shifted to the left. Reyna scowled and aimed again. The bulge kept moving. Frustration was making her arm shake. The mud monster was near the leaves. If it gets into camp, who know what damage it could do with its increasing mass.

"_Damnare. _It's too fast for a simple pile of mud." She took a deep breath and relaxed. The shaking of her arm dropped enough for her to get one shot.

_BAM! _The bullet hit its course, killing the monster and splattering the mud everywhere.

Reyna wiped the mud from her face. "Blergh. This monster tastes horrible." With her adventures with Jason and the others, Reyna had tasted quite a few monsters. This was by far the worst.

It started to rain harder, washing the mud away. Reyna wasn't too badly soaked since little rain came in the magical barrier, just enough to water the Ceres' Centuria's plants. She went from just a bit damp to completely drenched.

But now, it was if there were no barriers that would mean monsters could get into the fort. Or closer that is. Reyna remembered reviewing the blueprints of the fort. The walls were made of ten feet thick, infused with magic from the Trivia Centuria.

Though the magic made Reyna uneasy, no matter how much Dakota bargained for her, Alice wouldn't tell her what happened if the granite blocks broke. For all they knew, everyone in a half mile would turn into plants. Something that would please the fauns here.

"I've gotta tell Lupa." She muttered. As soon as she took a step, a way of intense nausea slammed into her. Her vision blurred and she stumbled, falling to the ground.

Her muscles were stiff and she couldn't move. It was getting hard to breathe. _I must not panic. Emotions just ruin the possibilities. The damn mud from that monster must be poisoned. I wonder how long do I have…_

Reyna could just barely twitch her fingers, and they were still wrapped around the trigger of _Carpe Scientia. _

Reyna started to panic when she began to lose feeling in her body.

Her vision went black and she felt nothing.

* * *

June scowled as Reyna didn't respond at all. She was alive of course, but for how long?

_What would Gwen do if she was here? _June cracked her knuckles, thinking back.

Reyna was brought by one of the patrolling campers, Julian. He said he had come to investigate why Reyna started shooting, and to possibly help her if needed.

June checked Reyna's vitals again. _They're slow, like she's paralyzed. I've given her some anitvenom but that isn't going much progress._

June bit her lip, _if Jason ever returns and finds Reyna like this or worse, I'd be dead._

June went to the medicine cabinet. _It's a good thing Gwen kept some nectar outside of the mini refrigerator. If this doesn't work…_

June took a hypodermic needle and filled it with nectar. Nectar was a very potent thing to use for healing. It raises the temperature of the body, if used too much, you'd burn up. It wasn't pretty, or so June had been told.

Someone came in to the _Infirmaria_ where June and Reyna was. June didn't pay attention to whoever it was. She pulled her pink hair into a pony tail and released the nectar into Reyna's blood stream.

June didn't expect Reyna to jump, what she did expect however, was her puking.

Reyna took deep, erratic breaths as she puked her stomach contents into the trash June was holding. It felt like she was under water for the longest time.

"What time is it?" she asked, laying her head on the pillow. June tilted her head.

Reyna looked troubled. "The afternoon? How long was I out?"

June scratched her cheek. "A day? What happened?"

June wiggled her fingers. "I was poisoned. Great." Something occurred to Reyna.

"I want you to get Dakota for me. Now." June nodded and left the Infirmaria,

Reyna rubbed her forehead. She felt like she was a punching bag for the Mars Centuria. Her throat was like straw was stuffed down it and she ached everywhere.

Her stomach lurched and she puked into the trashcan. Groaning, she lied back on the bed.

There was a knock at the door. Reyna mumbled a 'come-in' and Dakota waltzed in. His blonde hair was styled in the bedhead style, or he just probably woke up, Reyna concluded when she saw that he was still wearing his pyjamas pants. His First Legion purple shirt was wrinkled.

"You called? Jeez, Reyna. You look like you got puked on by a Hydra. What happened?" Reyna resisted the urge to fix her hair. Dakota was not one for being subtle, at least with conversation.

Reyna quickly explained what happened the night, being interrupted by puking. When she was done, Dakota was confused. "What do you need me for?"

"I need you…to bargain with the nymphs and dryads to move their trees either away from the walls or inside the camp. That...monster was climbing the tree. I'm sure that dryad is very disturbed." Dakota had the best bargaining skills out of the whole camp. He could convince a hellhound to act like a puppy.

Dakota considered it for a moment. "What do I get out of it?"

Reyna closed her eyes. "Trading Centuria shower privileges, teaming up for the next game of Sabotage? What do you want?"

Dakota smiled innocently. "How about you do my math homework for the entire term? School is about to start soon."

Reyna scowled. "Two and a half weeks."

"Three." If Reyna concentrated enough, a feat with the way she felt, she could barely hear the smooth undertone to his voice. That was a key feature about Mercury kids.

Reyna was too exhausted to fight it. "Three weeks and a day."

"Three weeks and I join you in this investigation. Don't act so surprised." He scoffed at her. "I've known you since we were three. I can see how you want to figure out why this is happening."

Reyna sighed. "Fine. But you better have those trees moved before I recover." She didn't need to say the _'or else'. _She was a Praetor; she had no need to sound threatening.

Dakota nodded. "Alright. Don't die; Jason would not be happy when he returns."

"Why are you acting like he will?" she said bitterly. She ignored the pang in her sore heart.

"Because, it's Jason. He wouldn't leave like that unless he was forced too. You gotta keep your trust in the good boys. Like Percy."

"Percy, a good boy? He's been causing trouble every other week since he was here." Reyna retorted.

Dakota shrugged. "Whatever you say." He turned and left the room.

Reyna sighed. There was an intuition in her mind that told her life wouldn't get any easier from now on.

* * *

The sunlight burned Reyna's retinas as June opened the curtains. She felt better, not perfect but at least she stopped puking her guts out.

"Can I leave today?" June nodded and gave her a glass of water.

"Thanks," Reyna swallowed the water in three gulps. "You did great without Gwen." She complimented. June blushed and nodded. June pointed to a bundle of clothes on the cot next to Reyna.

Reyna changed into a pair of black capris and a purple tank. She combed her brown hair and put it in her usual high ponytail. She thanked June before leaving the Infirmaria at the Forum. The Forum had all of the 'important' buildings. The _Artes _building, the Infirmaria, _Armamentarium, Tricliniaria, _the Pyram, the stables and the arena.

First thing was to see if Dakota kept his end of the bargain. She walked by the Neptune Caput tabernaculum and paused. Her mind began to wonder if Percy wasn't as innocent as he acted.

She decided to see if Percy left anything inside, at night, of course. Sneaking around in daylight would attract attention, even for a Praetor.

Reyna twisted the jewel bracelet Jason gave her before the battle at Mount Orthys. That was a bad time for First Legion. Everyday demigods died and disappeared. She almost had a panic attack when he gave it to her. Even though Reyna could accept the death of a toddler, she couldn't even stomach the idea of Jason or one of her close friends dying. Especially for parents who had basically ignored them for almost all of their lives.

She shook the dark thoughts from her mind and walked to the Mercury Caput tabernaculum. She knocked on the flap and waited. "Dakota? Are you in there?"

She heard a few curses and Dakota opened the flap, his eyes were groggy. "Reyna, darlin'. How are you?"

She ignored the term of endearment, and its feelings. "Yeah. Fine. Did you do what I asked?"

Dakota looked confused for a moment before nodding. "Pain in the groin to do it. Those dryads drove a hard bargain."

"Where did they move?" she questioned.

"Almost all of them moved inside the camp. I would watch out for your area. You got some new roommates."

Reyna made a face. "Right thanks."

"So, what's the plan?" Dakota asked, she blinked. _The plan? The plan…_

"I'm going to go to the library and see what I can find." Dakota nodded.

"What am I going to do?" Reyna thought about it.

"I want you to go see Nereus."

Dakota's eyes widened. Reyna noticed how a clear blue they were. "B-but he's impossible to catch! Myths say that he changes shape!" he spluttered.

Reyna smirked. "You're a clever demigod. Set a trap, bribe him. I'm sure you'll come up with something."

Dakota thought about it. "What question do you want me to ask?"

Reyna's voice didn't bring good feelings to Dakota as she answered. "I want you to ask what is waking up."

* * *

"Hazel! I need to talk to you!" Reyna shouted into the entrance of the Vulcan Centuria. She looked at the remains of the Centuria's work. Broken swords, sculptures, weapons littered the ground, making it a hazardous zone filled with sharp, unclean objects.

After a few minutes, Reyna was about to give up when Hazel poked her head out. Her face was grimy and her red hair was in a braid. She scowled at Reyna. "What do you want? I'm busy."

"Is it true you have a tunnel system that leads to every place in the camp?" She questioned. Hazel's face remained the same except for a flicker of uncertainty in her brown eyes.

"What of it." Hazel never trusted any of the Minerva or Mercury demigods. She hated not knowing what they were really planning. For all she knew, whenever they asked for a new sword, they could be planning a Centuria war. Somnia and Somnus were one rivalry, despite having similar powers. Victoria and Invidia were another.

Minerva, Mars, Mercury and her own Centuria were considered neutral. Whoever could earn their alliance was who they sided with. Hazel remembered the two years it was Minerva verses Mars. That was a difficult year.

"Do you have a tunnel that leads to the Neptune Caput Tabernaculum?" Hazel didn't like where this was going. _Maybe she plans to get rid of Percy?_

"Yea. Why?"

"Later this week, I want you to let me use the tunnel."

"Why?" She saw that Reyna had paused. "Look, if you can't tell me then don't bother asking." She started to climb down the hole.

"Wait!" Reyna looked around to make sure no one was in the range. "It's about Jason and Percy. I think Bobby was right that something was happening."

Hazel tilted her head. "And why do you want to go into Percy's tent?"

"He might've left something, like a journal or a clue as to why and how he got here."

Hazel sighed through her nose and closed her eyes. Anything that involved one of the smartest and cleverest people in First Legion was soon to be bad news. "What do I get out of it?"

Reyna sighed, clearly frustrated. It was easy to forget that everyone wanted something in return. "What do you want?"

Hazel was surprised that Reyna let her do that so easily. Reyna wasn't known for her willingness to her cooperation when it came to favours. Hazel thought about it.

"Next three games of Sabotage, you'll make an alliance with us." Reyna hesitated for a moment and held out her hand.

"Fine, but we get our gladiis sharpened." Hazel shook her hand.

"Deal." Hazel's hand was callused and rough but Reyna could tell that she took a great deal in her hands.

Hazel went down in the hole, she paused momentarily. "Reyna, I hope you know what you're what you're getting us into. The wolves won't hesitate to eat us if we-you don't be careful."

Reyna's voice was quiet. "I know, Haz. I just want to know what's happening and if the world needs saving again."

* * *

Reyna closed her eyes to clear her mind. She was risking a forty-eight hour patrol, not being there to train the strategic class. Forty-eight hours of no sleep, constantly standing on your feet and risk injury from the wolves in charge.

Reyna was torn between figuring out what is happening and just to do nothing until it was too late. Jason always told her that she had two sets of minds. One to figure out the plan and one to set out to do the plans, no matter the cost. Praetors weren't supposed to break rules, but enforce them.

She sent a prayer to Janus that she was doing the right thing.

She opened the top book on the pile of books she had collected in the library. Skimming it for any sign of the monster she had killed.

Nothing, absolutely nothing. She clenched her teeth. A forty-eight hour punishment, just to know the library had nothing she needed. What she could access anyways.

Reyna looked up at the forbidden floors of the library. She could see it, but even with her Praetor privileges, she could not access the three top floors.

Only Lupa, high rank wolves and the Top Praetor could. She was none of those.

A plan began to form in her mind. _What is forbidden is what is needed. _

She smiled and felt hot, moist breath on the back of her neck. There was a lowly growl. _Why are you here? _ A voice she recognized spoke in her mind.

_Crap._

* * *

**Well, Wassup my demigods, gods, nymphs, dryads and fauns? This chapter is so short compared to the others ._.". How was it? Did you expect to be back at First Legion? By the way, if any of you guys have predictions, did i meet them or did i do the complete opposite?**

**School's almost out. (Four more days...) Expect more chapters the coming weeks.**

**Did anyone go to the Rick Riordan and James Patterson appearance? I didn't but i watched it online. **

**I will admit it. I started to cry with joy when i saw the cover and heard the first pages of _The Son of Neptune. _I am that much of a Aphr-Venus girl when it comes to this beloved series. Any predictions for _The Son of Neptune_?**

**You guys are quite shy with reviews, aren't you? I'm not complaining or anything. I adore every review i get. Around _VIII: In Which Togas Are Breezy_, we reached fifty reviews. So i thought to myself, if the amount of reviews stays the same, we might reach one hundred by Chapter XVI.**

**So, can you guys do it? One hundred reviews by Chapter Sixteen? (Not forcing you guys or anything)**

**Reviewer Question: Any plans for the summer, what do you think of _The Son of Neptune, _or what do you think will happen at First Legion while our group is gone?**

**PS: Did anyone get _The Son of Neptune _reference? Kudos to you if you did!**


	11. XI: In Which What is Illicit is Exposed

_**Chapter XI: In Which What is Forbidden is Revealed**_

Reyna panted as she braced a hand against a tree. Her forty-eight hour punishment was barely halfway over. Lupa had caught her in the library, and after an intense questioning, had sent her to stay with her pack for forty eight hours.

The wolves in this pack had stopped, looking incredibly amused. She knew that they just stopped for her. She knew better than to tell them to stop laughing at her. They had the same body language as Lupa when she didn't want to talk.

Her throat was dirt dry and she was starving. No food or water unless the wolves stopped for it. Lupa must not want her to snoop around, because it was just her luck that the pack she was assigned to had eaten the night before.

Each Centuria had a certain pack, used for intense physical training, and punishment/torture. The wolves were above almost all of the campers at First Legion, except for the Praetors. They were on equal status with them. Though Reyna doubted it this time.

One of the older wolves nipped at her feet, telling that her few minutes of rest was over. She supressed a groan. She wondered where in California they were. The packs could leave camp at will, unlike the campers.

Her internal radar was practically shouting at her that she was directly north of the camp. She ignored the instinct to head that way. Young campers would go through a two, intense week training to gain the internal radar. It would help when the pack did the test to see if you had gained it. They would knock you out, and take you somewhere along the west coast. To pass, you would have to find your way back, intact and monster free. You couldn't enter camp if you failed.

Reyna remembered her first time, at the age of five. They had gotten her when she was asleep and left her near the Canadian border. For the first few hours, she was terrified. The only instinct that came through the panic was the internal radar telling her to head south.

She kept up with the wolves as she remembered the memory of it. It took her eleven days to get back to the camp. When she had returned, Lupa was impressed.

Later, when she became a Praetor, she found out why.

Lupa had thought she was weaker than the other Minerva children. So she sentenced her death. Lupa was rarely wrong.

An irrational thought peeked into her mind. _I wish that there was a less dangerous camp, where the training and tests couldn't kill you. _Almost immediately, she furiously berated herself. That type of camp didn't exist, besides from the human summer camps.

First Legion was the only demigod camp in the world.

It was the only place on Earth whose occupants had responsibilities that could save the world. Protect the gods and mortals from evil.

Even though the mortals didn't know it, their very existence was connected to the gods' existence. Western Civilization was what Lupa called it.

The pack stopped to rest for the day. Reyna sat down under the tree and closed her eyes, panting like one of them.

Her mind wandered without the concentration needed for endurance.

Maybe it was just her, but some things didn't add up. _What happened at Olympus to make the minor gods and goddesses get their say?_ Jason didn't defeat Saturn, just his brother Crius and yet the war was over.

There was also the fact that their camp director, Mr B., had left a month earlier. Not that Reyna was complaining, Mr B. was strict and easily angered. Though he rarely made contact with the campers. _Why did Mr B leave without a notice? Christian doesn't even know. Unless he's lying._

Another thing was about the Greeks. Originally, the gods were Greek. They surely didn't stay abstinent. What happened to those demigods?

Before she could think about it anymore, she was asleep.

* * *

Some fort of intuition woke Reyna up. The sun was setting and the wolves were sleeping.

It looked too _peaceful. _

Reyna started to reach for her shotgun before remembering she was being punishment. She quietly got up and stared at the environment. It was like those 'Find the Differences' pictures. What was wrong?

After a few minutes of just standing there, completely still, she found it. There were tiny piles of mud, almost unnoticeable. It was the same colour as the monster she killed.

A voice spoke in her mind. It seemed to come straight from the ground. _Why question the only place you belong? Without Lupa, you would not be here._

_Neither would Jason._

Reyna hesitated. Maybe the voice was right. After all, Lupa took them in when their mortal parents couldn't.

Something told her to ignore the voice, no matter how motherly and kind it sounded. _If you figure out this, horrible things would happen. Your friends would die._

Reyna was too focused with the voice to notice that the piles of mud were crawling together. _This life, you have, it's safe. Why risk intense punishment for a simple, unimportant mystery?_

_Why use that clever mind for something so insignificant?_

That one sentence jolted Reyna. Something insignificant? That went against the code of Minerva. No detail was unimportant, no mystery too small, nothing was insignificant and every bit of information, from the preferred weapon to how you breath, was important.

Reyna staggered back, infuriated by the voice. Her head was burning, feeling sticky. "No, no, no, NO!"

She heard a snarl and a sploosh. Through her fingers, she saw the alpha wolf attack the blob of mud, the same size as the night she first saw it.

Suddenly, all of the other wolves started to attack. They might be cruel and distant but they were fiercely protective of the campers.

Reyna remembered an important detail. "Don't swallow the mud! It's poison!" She wasn't sure if the wolves heard her.

"Hit the purple bulge!" She shouted when the wolves were getting frustrated.

At first, she tried to help them but the alpha snapped his jaws at her. A clear warning to _stay away._

The burning feeling in her head increased, she held her head. The voice came back, _Little girl, I warn you. What you do now will result in death. Everyone you know will die, Jason, Gwen, and Dakota. ALL of them. _The voice went from a motherly tone to a guttural growl.

Reyna fell to her knees. She didn't think anything, she just focused on breathing. Eventually, the voice went away and the pain stopped.

A wet nose nudged her. It was a young pup. He whined in concern.

She took a deep breath. "I-I'm fine. Did you kill it?" the pup looked at the alpha, which did not look happy.

The alpha howled and the wolves started to run, noticing that the monster was reforming quickly.

Before Reyna could blink, the alpha wolf picked her up by the cuff of her shirt and threw her across the back of another wolf.

Reyna clung to the coarse fur as the wolves sprinted away from the monster. Despite what her mind told her, she was terrified. The scent of the wolves comforted her a bit.

Even though it was against the rules to sleep, unless specified, she was asleep within the first few bounds.

* * *

Reyna woke up in her sleeper tent. She was still filthy and she had no knowledge of time.

Her first thought was to take a shower. She hated being filthy, it distracted the mind,

Grabbing her bag of toiletries and her grey towel. Outside, it was night, sometime around midnight. The camp was quiet.

The shower felt fantastic. All of the dirt, grime, blood and sweat washed away with the water.

The fear did not.

She would never admit it to anyone, not even to Jason or Gwen. This was the second time she was legitimately terrified. The only other time she was as scared as this, was when they were planning the battle plan for the attack on Mount Orthys. Jason had told her that he was going for the top level, alone.

Back then, she feared for his life and the world's. Now it might be her life and the world's instead.

What did Lupa and the voice did not want her to figure out?

Most importantly, how could she figure out this puzzle without being killed or punished?

The plan popped into her head as she passed the quiet Forum. The library's lights were off and Reyna couldn't see any patrolling wolves.

This was her chance. _Should I take it or figure it out within the rules? _Before she could even answer herself, Reyna was sneaking toward the Tricliniaria. There was a tunnel that led to the library.

She covered her wet hair with the towel and entered the passageway.

That was where her 'wolfy' instincts helped her. It was pitch black in the tunnel, and she listened to the echoes, silence and her breathing. Closing her eyes, she slowly walked along the shaft, pausing when she felt or heard someone on top of the tunnel.

At the end of the tunnel, Reyna waited exactly five minutes before opening the hatch.

The library was eerily quiet, like it knew something important was happening.

The balcony was too high to jump and Reyna didn't bring anything with her. She cursed. Rash decisions were the Mars Centuria's specialty.

Reyna didn't dare speak. _How to get up there without immediate notice? Wait, I first need to know where I have to go. I don't want to waste time browsing and get caught._

She thought about the layout of the library. The Minerva Centuria had all of the blueprints of the battles, buildings and anything related to First Legion.

Not including the Civil War, that is. Reyna wasn't the first to notice but she was the first to question it.

Since America declared their desire of separation from England, the Roman gods, had resided there. George Washington was the son of Minerva, Benedict Arnold was the son of Invidia.

But there was little known information during the Civil War. Reyna wasn't even sure what started the Civil War, besides from the mortal version.

She looked up and scanned the shelves. She smiled to herself when she saw that there was a shelf with the dates during the Civil War, they were locked however, but Reyna would deal with that later.

_Now, how to get there? The book stacks are too unstable being that high…_Reyna slipped on her bag of toiletries and looked around some more.

There was no visible way, but Reyna believed that when there wasn't a visible way, there was a hidden way.

She felt the shelves they were allowed to access to see if there was a hidden passageway. At the fifth shelf, after she pulled out a leather book. There was a faded symbol, almost unnoticeable unless you were looking for it. It was a triangle. _Why is this here? If it wasn't hidden, I'd say it was carved by someone here._

She ran her finger over the symbol. There wasn't any symbol like that in Latin or the Latin-based languages.

It glowed blue and she heard something drop behind the shelf. She backed up, wary. The shelf pulled back and revealed a dark hall.

Reyna mentally went through the blueprint of the library. That hall shouldn't he there, because on the other side of that wall, was the outside.

She hesitated. _This isn't a good idea, going in there without a source of light. But this may be my only chance to see what happened during the Civil War._

She was also risking her status as Praetor. She had no idea how high the punishment would be if Lupa found out. For all she knew, she could be killed for doing this.

As she looked for the symbol to close the hall, she spotted a candle, with a new wick and one match. She sent a thank you prayer to her mother.

The hallway led to a set of stairs; past that was another passage, but it had collapsed. The candle flickered as she quickly climbed up the stairs.

It led to another wall. Reyna clenched her teeth and turned around before realizing that the small source of moonlight from the way she came was gone.

She was trapped, in gods know where.

Reyna took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down. The candle would at least give her a few hours of light. And she had about six hours until someone would realize that she was missing.

She felt the walls, looking for the triangle symbol. When it wasn't there, she searched the floors.

The ceiling was too high for Reyna to reach but the triangle symbol was there. If she jumped, she could barely touch it.

On the fifth try, risking her source of light going out, she finally touched the symbol. It glowed blue and the wall in front of her moved, revealing the top floors of the library.

There was a problem though. The windows of the library showed that the sun was beginning to rise. That meant it was five in the morning. She went in the library at one. She surely didn't lose track of time. What happened?

Reyna didn't have time to figure it out, at least not here. She started to grab books; she was counting on the position of the shelves. During the day, shadows fell across the shelves, making it really hard to see if there were any books missing. At night however, you could clearly see the shelves.

Once her toiletries bag was full of books, she climbed over the railing. The hallway she came through had closed the moment she left it.

Her tailbone and legs grumbled in pain as she landed on the hard tile floor. No time to recover, she scrambled for the tunnel she came in as the sun rose higher.

She closed the entrance of the tunnel. Her only goal now was to get back to her tent without being caught.

* * *

Hazel watched as two very distraught campers rushed in through the gate. She scowled as she walked to them.

"What were you two doing?" She questioned them. "What's your Centuria?"

"We-we snuck out of the camp, wanting to see if we could fight a monster on our own." The boy flinched under Hazel's glare. "A-and Max thought he heard something in the bushes. S-so he ran ahead."

The other boy continued for his friend. "When we caught up with him, he was trying to fight…" the two were clearly disturbed by something.

"What did the monster look like?" Hazel prompted, slowly losing her patience.

"It looked like a pile of mud on steroids. It had a purple bulge of nerves near the middle." _That sounds like the monster Reyna fought with. But I thought she killed that one._

"What happened to Max?" She asked.

"Well, he rushed the monster and…and…it swallowed him whole." _Maybe that's why they're disturbed, they saw their first death._

"What are your names?"

"Josh and Dant, from the Iris Centuria." They looked very afraid.

Hazel snapped her fingers at them. "Go back to physical training. Jeremy and I will deal with you later." Both of them eagerly rushed off.

First, she was gonna have to talk to Reyna.

She walked into Reyna's sleeper tent. It was bigger than the other sleeper tents. There were piles of books and papers on the floors and tables. But besides that, the tent was pretty clean.

Reyna jumped when Hazel entered without knocking. Anyone could enter a sleeper tent, though it was polite to knock. "H-Hazel! What are you doing here?" she stuffed something under her pillow.

Hazel raised an eyebrow but she didn't ask, instead she said. "You didn't kill the monster that night did you?"

Reyna was insulted. "I did! Poisonous mud splattered everywhere!"

"Then why was a camper eaten by the very same monster? Unless they would reform that fast, which is impossible."

"What? A camper, eaten? That must mean there are more monsters." Reyna quickly explained what happened when she was with the wolves and her theory.

"But that would only count for one disappearance; we decided that all of the others were because of Saturn's influence." Hazel pointed out.

"That was before the battle at Mount Orthys. But very few disappearances happened after that. But last month, even more campers went missing, in the worst weather. I encountered that monster during a rainstorm. From what I can guess, something very powerful is waking up."

"How would that explain the monster the two Iris campers encountered in the middle of the day?"

Reyna thought about this for a moment. "When I told the voice that I would find out what was happening, it was very mad-"

"No duh." Hazel snorted but Reyna continued.

"And if the monsters are coming out in the day, which would probably mean that the owner of the voice was really serious about wanting whatever is happening to be a secret."

Hazel nodded. "Right. What does this have to do with Percy?"

Reyna sighed, "I've yet to figure that out. Seeing what he could possibly left is going to be a definite help."

Hazel played with her braid. "I found the tunnel you asked for, with what you're doing and the severity that could possibly happen, I suggest that we go tonight."

"We?" Reyna raised an eyebrow.

"I hope you just didn't assume I would let you use my tunnels without me." Hazel replied.

Reyna shook her head. "No, I didn't…" _She did. One problem about the Minerva Centuria. They always think by themselves. You need gears in order for a clock to work._

Reyna looked at her watch, "It's almost time for my training. I've got to go." She got up. "See you around midnight?"

Hazel nodded. "Try not to get in trouble until then."

* * *

_Five more hours, _Reyna thought as she picked out her dinner. After she had her talk with Hazel, the day went by normally as it could. She had interviewed the two campers and a part of her theory was confirmed.

Something was waking up, that was for sure. But what exactly, and why?

After she had returned to her sleeper tent, she forced herself to get some sleep and wait for spare time.

Some of the books were the journals of demigods. The way of the writing was a bit difficult to decipher but she eventually figured out they were talking about other demigods. _Was the war Roman vs. Roman?_

That didn't make sense to Reyna. She'd been thinking about it ever since.

She sacrificed a portion of her meal to her mother and sent a prayer._ Please help me solve this._

She sat down and began to eat, not really tasting the food.

It was unusual for Romans to fight each other, a battle that got large enough to mimic mortal history. What was the reasoning for the conflict? Reyna knew it wasn't as basic as slavery, it went deeper than that. _Maybe a Centuria rivalry? Neptune and Minerva could be possible. _

She doubted this. _I'm gonna have to read more. You can't make Water and Honey Melons with just water._

Someone sat down in front of her. The faint smell of rotting fish intercepted her olfactory receptors. She wrinkled her nose and looked up. It was Dakota.

"Why do you smell?" She asked, taking a drink from her goblet.

Dakota groaned. "I showered seven times and I _still_ smell? I'm going to ask Kim for help."

Reyna couldn't help but snicker. "So I'm guessing you captured Nereus?"

Dakota nodded, looking disgruntled. "I did, it took six hours to do so and I'm very surprised that my disappearance wasn't noticed."

Reyna couldn't help but smile. "What did he say?"

Dakota paused. "This is what he exactly did. Nereus grumbled about no one leaving him alone and asking obvious question. Then he pointed to the ground and said 'It ain't gonna get more obvious than that.' After that, he swam away."

"He pointed to the ground? How could the ground be waking up?" Reyna mumbled to herself. As far as her knowledge went, there was no deity that controlled the earth. Besides Pluto and Neptune but this was far more powerful than two of the Big Three gods.

"It's obviously not Pluto or Neptune." Dakota said, reading Reyna's face. She nodded in agreement.

"Could it be another Titan? The Titan Ops could be angry that her husband failed."

Dakota shook his head. "From what we've learned during the war, she wasn't involved in it. So I doubt that she could be angry over something she wasn't part of."

She wrinkled her nose, "What do you know about the Civil War?"

He blinked, "The Civil War? Nothing besides the mortal version of it. Why?"

Reyna played with the uneaten portion of her food. "I think this has something to do with it."

"Why?"

Reyna shrugged. "Right now, I don't have enough information. I might have a more solid theory by the end of this week."

Dakota looked surprised. "This week? That's a long time, even for you."

Reyna scowled. "I know, but this is could literally mean life or death. I'm not going to rush it."

"So, are you going to spend your sleepless nights getting more information?"

She smirked. "Something like that."

* * *

The moonlight made the fort look eerie, at least to Reyna. She wasn't a fan of the dark or any of its relatives.

She had been waiting for Hazel for at least five minutes. She was about to give up and go on her own when she heard the long grass shuffle.

Before she could even think, she had Carpe Scientia out and her finger trigger-ready.

Hazel swallowed, even though she didn't like the idea of a modern weapon to fight monsters, she really didn't want to be shot. "Nervous are we?"

Reyna lowered the barrel. "I'm not fond of the dark, that's all."

"Don't let Todd hear you say that. That guy is the master of fear, besides his father."

Reyna shuddered, "Don't remind me."

Hazel motion for Reyna to follow her. "Come on, the faster we do this, the faster I can sleep."

Reyna swung her shotgun across her back and followed Hazel to the Minerva Caput Tabernaculum. Hazel reached down and appeared to be searching for something.

"How many tunnels are there?" Reyna was curious. She had heard rumours about them, including the one where there was a tunnel that led straight to San Francisco.

"Enough to keep my Centuria excavating for a couple of centuries." Was Hazel's curt reply. She pulled at a silver, dirt encrusted handle and an opening the size of a manhole appeared.

Hazel slipped in the hole. "Come on."

Reyna hesitated for a minute before following.

"What do you think of Percy?" she asked as she followed Hazel.

Hazel kept a hand on the dirt wall while she walked. It was really easy to miss an entrance to another tunnel. "I don't like what I don't know. I don't trust him, especially with that Celestial Bronze sword."

Reyna tilted her head. "What do you mean? What's wrong with his sword?"

"It's pure Celestial Bronze. It's very hard to get the temperature right. It's more stable than Imperial Gold but our furnaces are too hot for Celestial Bronze, it just burns in high quantities."

Reyna nodded as Hazel continued. "It would take a miracle from Vulcan to make a sword just from Celestial Bronze."

Hazel pulled at a rock and another entrance appeared. Reyna could smell the salty beach breeze.

"It smells like the beach."

"Thanks for the notice, Sherlock." Hazel rolled her eyes and walked into the tunnel.

After a couple of minutes of walking and waiting as Hazel kept track of where they were, they had arrived at the entrance of the Neptune Caput Tabernaculum.

It smelled so strongly like the beach, Reyna had to make sure they were still at First Legion.

Reyna felt like she was underwater. The only source of light came from the pool on the left side of the tent. "Wow."

She started to look around. She didn't expect to find much; all Percy had was the stuff in his pocket and what First Legion supplied him.

"What's this?" Hazel asked as she found a case on the bookshelf. It gave a faint gold glow.

Hazel opened it. There was Riptide, basking in a combination of salt and fresh water. "Why did he leave it here?"

Reyna looked at the case. "I don't know. It looks fine to me."

"I would like to take it with me, so to see how it was made." Hazel mumbled, deep in thought.

"I wouldn't touch it-"Reyna started but she was too late.

As soon as Hazel touched it, the tent seemed to notice intruders. The blue green glow of the light turned dark grey, making it difficult to see.

Water began to rush in the tent from everywhere. Within moments, the tent was filled to the brim with water.

Hazel swam to the entrance of the tunnel. She scrambled to find the handle.

Reyna completely forgot about the defences of each Caput Tabernaculum. It varied with each god and goddess. For Minerva, there was a couple of 'tests'. For example, sometimes you had to weave a certain pattern or figure out a map of a city, in a matter of minutes.

She wasn't surprised that Neptune's defence was to completely submerge the tent in water. The pressure was increasing as well.

Hazel pulled at the handle but the pressure of the water counteracted with her force. It only moved when Reyna pulled on it as well.

The water pulled Hazel and Reyna, slamming them into the wall. Reyna had a hard time knowing how long they were underwater. Thirty seconds? A minute? Her lungs were starting to burn.

Both of them were blindly feeling the wall for the handle. The water and dirt combination clouded the water even more. Hazel tried to ignore the panic of being completely submerged in water.

They both pulled at the rock, kicking their feet to propel themselves backwards.

The water rushed out of the entrance, starting to flood the other tunnels. Reyna and Hazel gasped for breath. They only rested for a few moments before Hazel realized that at the rate of the water rushing out of the tunnel, all of the tunnels and eventually the _Armamentarium. _

She stood up. "Reyna! Help me close the door! The water is going to flood everything!"

Reyna looked at her, momentarily confused before helping Hazel push the door closed against the rushing water.

The mud squished as the girls slumped against the now closed doors. They were wet, and covered in mud.

"Great, how am I going to explain to my campers why there is mud underground?" Hazel complained.

"Mud is better than flooded tunnels." Reyna muttered. She didn't learn anything. Either Percy was smarter than she previously thought or he is as innocent as he appears.

"You shut up. Who knows how much water is in the tunnels now."

"Think positive, Haze."

"I swear on my father's name, if you don't shut up, you'll find an angry automaton in your bed."

Reyna decided to close her mouth. For some reason, despite not gaining any information, she felt really good, like she discovered something important.

But first, she was gonna need a shower to get the mud off her.

* * *

"Be patient, young one. Your time will come very soon."

"B-but we've been here for four days and he _still_ isn't ready. We need to leave now-"

"Have patience. The boy had been through a lot. Have you decided yet?"

"Not yet…"

"Well, you best make a choice fast. It will affect your future and his."

"I know."

* * *

**Hello my beloved reader. How's life? What did you think of this chapter? Or the ending?**

**From my very rough estimate, we're about halfway through _First Legion._**

**Guess what? I have a beta, my very first beta. _iscreamdrizzle. _So far, she has been a awesome beta. Go check out her story. It's better than mine.**

**For those readers who asked what was the website where I saw Rick live, it was www . rick and james live . com, though I believe it was only for that day. The official Facebook page of PJO keeps me updated on stuff like that. (Maybe one of the few perks of being a Facebook addict.)**

**Review Question: Are YOU a Facebook addict? If not, what website are you addicted to? (Besides beloved Fanfiction of course.) If you are not addicted to any websites, can you swim? I can't swim...**

**Reviews make lovely presents for my inbox, remember that!**


	12. XII: In Which Things are Illuminated

**_ Chapter XII: In Which Things are Illuminated_**

Gwen paced back and forth in the foyer of the house. If Percy ever woke up, he was going to die. Four freaking days being stuck here in Hawaii. Four freaking days in which Gwen was almost sick with worry. She only had a vague idea where Bobby and Todd were. For all she knew, they could still be in Las Vegas, dead or alive.

She pushed that thought away and stopped wandering around the room anxiously. Bora was sleeping. Gwen had learned that Bora couldn't read or write, so she was teaching him in her spare time. Who would've thought learning a new power could be time consuming?

"I should check on Percy. Maybe he might be polite enough to wake up so I can kill him." Gwen sighed and closed her eyes. She was still getting used to this new power that Aurora had taught her.

Light Travel. It was similar to Shadow and Air Travel but with well, light. Aurora had told her that only powerful children of Apollo could learn it and not burn up. Gwen didn't burn up. So she took that as a good sign.

She concentrated on the location of Percy's room and the source of light. Her insides twisted into knots as she was pulled into the light.

If Shadow Travel was extremely cold, Light Travel was extremely hot. Gwen felt like she was standing on the sun. Her toes curled, and she wanted to scream but didn't dare to because it would show feebleness. That thought was the fuel for her determination to master this power. She was getting used to it

Gwen kept her eyes closed so the bright light wouldn't blind her.

Swallowing down the nausea, Gwen steadied herself. _Now I know how Todd feels when he does Shadow Travel, I'm exhausted._

Gwen opened her eyes. She didn't expect what she saw at all. Not in the least.

* * *

_Percy was running through a forest. He had no idea why he was running or who he was running from. All he knew was that he needed to get away from here._

_He didn't have to look to see that Riptide was in his hand._

_He skidded to a halt where the forest ended and a beach began. The water didn't look very happy; it was a dark grey that almost matched the black stormy sky. Waves pounded on the wet brown sand._

_He could hear someone catching up to him. What to do? What to do?_

_He could run along the beach, or back into the forest, risking being captured by whatever was chasing him. _

_Before he could make a decision, something had slammed into his back. _

_The pain was pure agony. Percy spat out seawater and sand, trying to get up._

_"Why did you do it? They were our friends!" The voice sounded around his age and beyond angry, furious or enraged. _

_Percy turned around._

_The boy was about a year younger than him with honey blond hair, cut it in a military style. His electric blue eyes seemed to be made of pure lightning from the thunderstorms circling above. Those eyes were familiar somehow._

_Obviously, this guy wasn't his best friend right now. "What do you mean?"_

_The gold spear in the boy's hand crackled with electricity that matched his eyes. "Don't play coy, Percy. I know you did it."_

_Percy started to get up but the boy pointed the spear at his throat. The heat from the electricity stopped him from moving. "Wait, what did I do? I honestly don't know."_

_The wind picked up harshly. Percy felt the ocean's anger, who the anger was for, he didn't know._

_The boy's scowl looked harsher with that scar on her upper lip. "Just look at your sword, you Sociorum Proditor."_

_Percy was afraid to look at Riptide, but he did. He dropped the handle like it was covered in Hydra acid then set on fire._

_Instead of the blade begin a beautiful bronze colour; it was a blood red colour. The blood was almost indistinguishable against it. The only way Percy knew there was blood because it dripped on the water, creating froth._

_Dread filled Percy's bloodstream. His throat was dry all of a sudden. What did he do? _

_"You're a real sick bastard, even by demigod standards. Why did you kill our friends?"_

_The image of the blonde girl with the knife in her stomach forced its way into Percy's mind. A small piece of hope fluttered in his heart. If he saw the girl at camp, she surely must be alive._

_The boy clenched his fist around the spear. "I don't care if I have to face your father's wrath if I kill you. You don't deserve to live."_

_Even though he probably deserved this, Percy tried to pick up Riptide to defend himself. Can't go dying without a fight, he thought._

_But Riptide weighed like two tons all of a sudden. He couldn't even move it a centimetre. What was happening?_

_The storm turned into a full out hurricane. Lightning flashed everywhere and they were drenched by the rain._

_That didn't stop the boy from attacking._

* * *

Percy groaned and opened his eyes. His head felt like it was used as a punching bag and they had a bomb exploded on it.

The bright light murdered his rods and cones. He looked around.

The room looked like a study. The floors were white tiles and the roof was clear, made from glass.

He kicked off the light blanket on top of him and got off the white leather couch.

Percy stumbled and fell on his face. He must've been out for a while; because his legs felt like Jell-O.

"Hello? Anyone there?" He called as he tried to stand up.

"Percy! How do you feel being conscious?" A deep voice asked cheerfully, Percy couldn't find the source of the voice.

Percy couldn't help but feel stupid as he looked around and answered. "How long was I out?"

The voice chuckled. It must've been Percy's paranoia about talking to someone he couldn't see or his hunger but Percy had the feeling that something bad was going to happen. "About four days. How do you feel?"

"Four days! What happened? Did someone knock me out with some type of voodoo magic or am I really that weak? But other than that I feel good, energized even."

"Fantastic! Can you please stand in the middle of the room? I want to see something."

Percy walked to what he assumed what was the middle of the room. "Who are you and where am I?"

"You'll learn who I am later. You're in Haleakala National Park, Hawaii."

Percy looked up at the glass roof. The position of the sun told him it was barely noon. "Where are Gwen and the others?"

Before he could get an answer, he felt someone at his back. He swiftly turned around.

The guy looked like a surfer dude. His hair was sun-bleached blonde and his skin was a warm, even tan colour. The eyes startled Percy. They were a bright red-orange, like someone condensed the sunset and placed it in the iris.

Suddenly, the guy swung a sword. Percy ducked and did a backward flip away from the guy. "Whoa! No hello or anything?"

The guy smirked and waved his hand. A force that felt similar to being punched in the stomach threw Percy against the bookshelves along the walls of the study.

Piles of heavy, hardcover books fell on Percy. All of the air had left his lungs, deciding to join their companions in the air,

He tried to get up. His blurry vision wasn't helping.

The air around him suddenly warmed and Percy's body moved of its own accord, rolling to the left. Percy just barely missed the ravage of exploding arrows.

_Someone doesn't like me. What did I ever do to him? _Percy crouched behind one of the armchairs in the room. His senses were running wildly. He could see the titles of the books across the room, the subtle muscles on the surfer as he looked around for Percy.

Percy grabbed a dictionary and flung it. It slammed into his head with a painful _THUMP_.

Another flurry of arrows launched at Percy but this time he was prepared for Percy's dodging. Arrows were everywhere and the armchair wasn't going to last.

The scent of the ocean teased Percy's olfactory senses. He had no idea where the scent was coming from but it gave him an idea.

His gut was twisted painfully into knots as Percy concentrated. A wave of water broke through the glass roof and engulfed the room.

The arrows stopped but the water was going to make it slightly harder for Percy to defeat this guy.

He swam away from the now destroyed armchair and out in the open.

The guy glared at Percy and pointed at Percy, mouthing something. Percy couldn't understand it but he assumed it was a threat or an insult.

A beam of light shot at Percy. The water pushed him down, just barely missing his head. The light was so intense it blinded Percy and boiled the water around it.

Percy sent a jet of water at the guy, knocking him back a few feet. In return the guy made the water disappear. "Let's see how you do without your precious water to protect you."

Percy dodged another one of the guy's light beams, hiding behind the couch. _What do I do now?_

Above the fireplace, which Percy didn't notice until now, there was a sword encased in glass.

He had no idea what a sword could do to a guy who could launch rays of light from his fingers but it would be better to have a weapon anyways.

The books provided a nice couple of seconds of distraction. Who would be distracted being hit in the face by huge hard covered books? _I should probably fund in a couple of these, they'd be an annoyance to carry though._

Once Percy had grabbed the sword, punching through the glass, he had tried to get back to the couch.

That failed. Since the couch wasn't there anymore.

The guy's sword looked to be made of gold. The rubies sparkled on the hilt like sunlight was reflecting off it.

He smirked when he saw Percy with the sword. "Classic then? Fine by me."

Percy parried the first attack. He'd expected the fight to be difficult, since this guy was clearly a god or a very powerful monster but Percy was actually holding his own.

The sword Percy had felt familiar. It clearly wasn't Riptide. Maybe it was because the style of the sword was similar to his sword and not the Roman _gladius_.

Percy felt confident all of a sudden. _Bobby would be rolling in his envy right now._

He was too busy being cocky that he didn't anticipate the feint that his opponent made.

Being kick in the chest by some all-powerful being was much more painful than being kicked by one of the Mars Centuria. Percy smashed into the last standing bookshelf, more books falling on his head like some classic cartoon.

Percy felt the heat of the sword as it was pushed against his throat. He didn't dare swallow, unless he wanted a hole in his Adam's apple, which he did not.

A bright flash of light blinded Percy. He was momentarily surprised when he saw Gwen.

The luminous sunlight made her hair match a beautiful sunrise. The light also pronounced the curves Percy didn't see.

"Percy! What did you do?" She exclaimed in disbelief. He blinked the spots away, the light was gone.

Percy shook his head. "Why do you instantly blame me? He attacked me first!" _That last sentence sounded so childish. Gods. _"He wasn't even polite enough to tell me how I offended him." _Wow, did I really just say that?_

Percy's complaining somehow made the guy smile and chuckle. "Just like his father. I just wanted to see if my theory was right and it was."

"Wait, you met my father? " Percy didn't think this guy was old enough to meet his father but looks can be deceiving.

He nodded. "I did. Way back when my father was fond of sonnets. Your father is such a humorous person, compared to his brothers. You look like him."

Gwen looked at Percy then at the mess that was the study. "Aesculapius, are you going to kill him?"

Aesculapius shook his head. "I just wanted to see if what I thought was true."

"And what was that?" Gwen helped Percy up. Her hands were unexpectedly soft, Percy noted. "Aurora won't be happy that you ruined the study."

Aesculapius smiled. "Don't worry, half-sister. The study would fix itself. How about you and Percy eat while I explain my atrocious behaviour?"

Now that Aesculapius mentioned it, Percy's hunger had returned with a vengeance. His stomach growled loudly.

Gwen sighed, "I guess I am hungry. I'm going to wake up Bora. Percy, you can follow Aesculapius to the dining room."

Percy glanced at Aesculapius. He wasn't sure that he should be alone with a guy who had almost killed him. Were all people involved in this world so…haphazard?

"Don't worry Percy, I can't kill you." Aesculapius led him through the gigantic house.

Percy was suspicious. What kind of monster/god would tell outright that they can't kill you? "Why?"

Aesculapius looked back. 'I'll explain part of the answer when Gwen and the other child are here. The most obvious thing is that I'll incur the wrath of Neptune himself if his only son is killed so early."

Percy stopped. What did he say? "Wait a minute. Killed so early? What does that mean?"

He didn't answer and Percy caught up with him. "If you won't answer that, can you at least tell me who you are?"

"I'm Aesculapius, Son of Apollo and God of Healing."

Percy tilted his head. For some reason, he could see some resemblance to Gwen and Apollo (Though he never met the Sun God). The high cheekbones and cocky persona. Though for Gwen it was more of an 'I know how to do my job better than you' than an 'I'm completely and totally better than you at everything'. Percy knew that there was a small difference between the two,

"Isn't Apollo the God of Healing?" He asked. _The gods can be so confusing, with some having the same power. It gives me a headache almost as much as Latin._

Aesculapius looked miffed. "He is the God of healing but I take the healing aspect of medicine. Or the recovery for you modern people."

"Oh, that makes sense." They had arrived at what Percy presumed to be the dining room. It was larger than anything Percy had ever seen and he had a hard time believing that it could fit in this house without making the building look ridiculous.

The long table you only see in the dining rooms of royalty was filled with all kinds of food. Everything from the local cuisine to plates of food Percy hadn't even known existed.

"Take a seat anywhere." Aesculapius said, half amused at Percy's blatant awed staring. "It's my treat."

"Mast-Percy! You're awake!" Bora exclaimed, clearly relieved. Before Percy could even blink, Bora had engulfed him in a hug.

He smiled and ruffled the spiky snow white hair. "How did you survive being with Gwen here?"

Bora blinked, looking momentarily confused. "What do you mean? Mistress Gwen is a wonderful lady. She is teaching me how to read."

Gwen's cheeks turned a light rose colour. She cleared her throat. "It was nothing. Bora had decided to join First Legion on our return. He is going to need the ability to read; school is in session right now."

Percy noted how she tried to hide how pleased she was with her Praetor serious demeanour. He smiled at her. "Still. At least you' re treating Bora decently."

Aesculapius interrupted them. "Alright, take a seat anywhere nearby. Eat to your heart's content, and then we'll talk."

"Is everyone full? Excellent. Now we can talk without bodily functions interrupting us." Aesculapius said once the demigod trio had finished eating. Percy hadn't felt this content in the longest time.

"Lord Aesculapius, is there something you want from us?" Bora asked slowly, the tone of his quiet voice etched with nervousness. Gwen could understand where the nervousness came from. Bora was obviously not treated as well as this without some price. She felt sympathy for the boy that Percy had undeniably saved. If Caligula didn't kill him, someone else would.

That's how the world with Roman deities works.

Aesculapius intertwined his hands and put them under his chin. "I'm tired of being socially excluded."

Gwen raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean by that?"

"My grandfather, Jupiter, his huge ego has been shot down a few notches a couple of months ago. He-"

Percy interrupted him. "Wait, after the Titan War?"

Aesculapius nodded. "Yes, the hero of the war was offered the chance of having the perks as a god." Percy could've sworn that Aesculapius looked at him when he said it. "And he so politely declined. Obviously, Jupiter took it the wrong way. He still thinks that mortals and demigods are the same."

Bora spoke up. "Why are they different?" He sounded genuinely curious.

"Well, demigods know the bad aspects of immortality outweigh the good parts. Corruption, depression, boredom and the possibility of fading away anyways. Mortals on the other hand, they're just full of the need to make life better."

Percy looked at Aesculapius. "Wait, Gods can fade away? Like ghosts or something?"

He nodded solemnly. "Gods and monsters can fade. It happens when people don't believe in them, what they stand for doesn't exist anymore or they simply lost the will to live. I know of dozens of minor deities that are currently fading or have faded away."

That was a sobering thought. Percy would have never thought that gods could just _fade_ like ghosts or something. He thought it was sad, that a lot of people thought that the minor gods and goddesses weren't important anymore.

"Also," Aesculapius continued. "There are some gods that _want_ to fade but can't because what they stand for is always needed but rare in use."

"Back to the story. Jupiter took the polite denial as an insult. He thought 'Oh, so the mortals think they're better than the gods. I think I'm going to order a social exclusion. That would fix everything.' Obviously, the gods were forbidden to make contact of the human world, for pleasure and for purpose besides Claiming their children."

"I know we keep stopping you, and I apologize for that," Gwen interjected. "But if Lord Jupiter has forbidden contact, why are you here, talking to us?"

Aesculapius smirked just a bit. "Jupiter can't control all of the minor gods. There are more of us than him and personally, just because we've been given more attention, doesn't mean we have to become sheep instantly. Plus I never liked Jupiter, he killed me. And you can't just forgive a person just like that." He snapped his fingers to emphasis the point.

Percy choked on the mango juice he was drinking. "He killed you and you're still here?"

Aesculapius nodded, peeling an orange. "That's a story for later. At any rate, the minor gods pay more attention to the really old guys, just like for the Titan War. Something is rising and it will make Saturn look like a new-born pup if it comes to complete power."

Gwen felt genuine worry. Saturn's armies were difficult to deal with and they had many casualties that they were still recovering from. The Mars' Centuria was a fourth of its original size before the battle at Mount Orthys. "Do any of the major gods know?"

Aesculapius thought about it for a minute. He was slightly annoyed that his half-sister was more concerned for the major ones than what he had just implied but nonetheless, he knew what she was suggesting. "Juno, for one. She was kidnapped a couple of weeks ago and was saved. That started to convince Jupiter that some bad voodoo was happening. His paranoia still wins over though. Percy's old man fully believes it, and Pluto, after all they have domain over the ground. Diana suspects something. Her Hunters are suffering because monsters can't die now."

Percy cracked his knuckles. "We can learn about the little stuff later. How are you going to help us, Ace?"

Aesculapius raised an eyebrow. "Ace?"

Percy shrugged, "I can't pronounce your name if my life depended on it. Plus, you seem to be an Ace guy."

Aesculapius smiled and shook his head. _He was definitely the son of Neptune._ "Ace it is then. It has a nice ring to it and I never had a nickname before."

He stood up and motioned toward the balcony. "My help will involve you and Gwen. Go outside of the balcony and you'll see."

Bora felt slightly disappointed that he wasn't going to be a part of this but he was determined not to be a burden to Master Percy. He was the first person to show sincere humanity toward him. Even though he had said that he wouldn't mind being punished by Master Caligula; Bora was terrified of the thought of dying being so worthless.

To everyone he ever knew, even the other servants he called friends, he was just a servant. He had always dreamed of joining the infamous First Legion. This was his opportunity to figure out who his godly parent was.

Ace noted Bora's disappointment. "Come with me, Bora. I want to show you something."

Bora hesitated. This was his first time meeting a god and he had no idea how they acted alone. He had no idea if Lord Aesculapius would kill him or do something to him. "Yes, Master Aesculapius."

Aesculapius' hand was uncomfortably warm on Bora's shoulder. "It's Master Ace, kid."

* * *

They had been waiting for almost seven minutes. Ace hadn't returned yet.

"Gwen, isn't this heat bothering you?" Percy asked, sitting in the doorway, in the shade.

Gwen shrugged. She was leaning against the marble railing. "Father's the Sun God. I can stand a lot of heat." The only thing she did to cool off was putting her hair in a ponytail.

Percy rolled his eyes. _My dad is the God of Water; shouldn't that keep me cool all the time? It sounds like he's holding back on all of the necessary powers. _"When is Ace coming back? I'm evaporating here."

"Be patient, Percy. You don't want to annoy any god."

"You're just saying that because he's your half-brother."

"No, I'm not. It doesn't matter that we have the same father-"

"So you're saying that if you had different paternal figures, you'd get with him?"

Maybe it was the heat getting to him, but Percy was enjoying the way Gwen was acting to his redundant questions.

Her cheeks turned pink. "Now where would you get the idea-"

"Your cheeks are pink." He pointed out.

"So?" She grumbled.

"That means you're embarrassed or the heat is _finally _getting to you but I think it's the former."

"Your point?" She wouldn't make eye contact with him.

"You _like_ him." He sang as he stood up and poked her in the shoulder. The heat was seriously getting to him if he was having this much fun teasing the calm Gwen.

"I do not!" She shoved him lightly. "He's totally not my type!"

Percy raised an eyebrow. "And I'm assuming Bobby is your type?"

Gwen gave him a look. She wasn't sure if Percy could see it but she felt extremely uncomfortable being this close to Percy.

He was undeniably attractive, when she had first saw him, she had pegged from for a Venus guy. Now that she had spent time with him, caring for him as he drooled in his sleep, she noticed that he had an irrefutable aura of charisma, way better than what Jason or Todd had. There was also his laidback conduct, if he had to wait, he would wait patiently, unlike Jason or Todd. This boy was surely something.

"He has some aspects of my type." She finally answered. "But no boy is completely perfect, every girl knows that."

"And every girl is hard to please, every guy _knows _that." He countered, getting real close that Gwen could smell his trademark combination scent of the ocean, ground and sky but blended together refreshingly.

"Percy, back up a bit. You smell." For emphasis, in case he saw through her demeanour, Gwen wrinkled her nose.

Percy backed up a bit. Not because of Gwen, but his ADHD was acting up. He could barely see something shining on the beach.

"Gwen, there's something on the beach." He stated, squinting his eyes to get a better look. The beach was dozens of yards away.

"So?" She turned to see what Percy was talking about. "Aesculapius told us to wait out here."

"But it's starting to get boring, just waiting. I'm gonna see what it is." Before Gwen could object, Percy climbed over the railing and jumped.

"Whoa!" Percy's questionable intelligence hindered him once again. He didn't bother to check if the distance was safe to jump.

The ground embraced him rather harshly. He could feel his bones being jolted but there wasn't any major pain.

"Percy! Are you alive?" Gwen shouted, leaning over the railing.

He coughed and stood. His balance was messed up and he fell over.

There was a flash of light and Gwen was right beside him, helping him up. "Why are you alive?"

"Thanks, I feel so loved at the moment." _At least his sarcasm is still intact, _Gwen thought as Percy leaned against her for support until his balance returned.

"Percy, that fall was almost seventy feet. That would've killed you. Why didn't it kill you?"

Percy mused over it. He really didn't wonder why he couldn't get hurt, physically at least. He had no idea about his capacity to feel mental pain. "I have no clue."

Gwen looked concerned. "Does that mean you're immortal if you can't be hurt? Because that fall should've kill you at its worst and paralyzed you at its best."

"I don't know but let's go the beach and see what was shining." Percy started to make his way through the foliage.

Gwen looked up at the balcony then at Percy. She sighed, Bora behaved better than Percy at some points. This was one of them.

She started to follow him. "I'm _so _glad that you show immense interest in what was shining at the beach than why you survived a seventy foot fall."

"What can I say? I like shiny stuff."

* * *

After a good four minutes of walking through dense, stifling flora, Percy and Gwen had arrived at the beach.

"Are we there yet?" Gwen asked, "I'm beginning to think you're lost."

"I'm not lost! And I'm not going to ask for directions. I can feel the beach. It only a yard or two away." He wasn't lying. It was like having a compass in his chest, telling him where the ocean was. Why in his chest, he had no clue, maybe because his gut was filled with other stuff.

After climbing over a fallen tree, the beach came into view. It was one of the most stunning sights Percy had ever seen.

The sand was a flawless white and the water was clear and strikingly blue. The waves of the ocean were perfect for surfing. His fingers were tingling for some reason.

"Where's your so called shiny thing?" Gwen asked.

Percy looked around, "It's right here." He kneeled beside a small spot of gold, barely the size of a penny.

Gwen blinked. "You saw that shining? All the way back at the manor?" She looked behind her, the floating house where Aesculapius and Aurora stayed at was at least three hundred meters away.

Percy nodded. "It was sort of annoying until I concentrated on it." He wiped the sand away until the penny sized spot was the size of a dollar.

"It would be Fortuna's will if we found some hidden treasure." Gwen had started to help wiping the sand. "I think it's a hatch to something. I'm beginning to see the handle."

After all of the sand was removed, the hatch was the size of a poster board. It was decorated with patterns of snakes, bones and children. The patterns were familiar to Gwen…

Percy took the round handle and pulled. It didn't budge. _The water and sand must've shut it, _Percy mused to himself.

"Percy, don't pull a muscle! I don't think you can open-" Gwen was once again silenced by the exact opposite. He had managed to open the hatch, the outward force knocking him on his butt. _Some things aren't adding up now, first he spots this from an impossible distance for any demigod, then he survives the fall that should've killed him and finally, opening a trapdoor that was stuck for who knows how long. Is he really a demigod? _Gwen was starting to doubt Percy's story of amnesia, what demigod wouldn't know his own capabilities?

"It's open. Let's go inside." Percy looked down the hole. The ladder was rusty but sturdy.

Gwen wavered, glancing back at the manor in the distance. "I don't think so. What would happen if Ace found out we weren't where we were supposed to be? He'd take that as an insult, I would." She added.

Percy sighed through his nose. "If Ace wanted to meet with us, he would've come minutes ago. He either planned this or he is super busy. I say let's go." He looked at her, "Please? I've been asleep for four days and I haven't had any dose of activity."

The look Percy gave her faltered her resolve. "Alright fine, but if we get caught, I'm blaming you."

"Don't I always get blamed anyways?" Percy climbed down the ladder slowly.

* * *

"It's dark in here. Can you see anything Percy?" Gwen jumped down from the end of the ladder and landed shin deep in water.

"Kind of, but it would really be helpful if I had a light."

Gwen looked up at the trapdoor thirty feet above them. _Let's see if I can do this, Aurora taught me the theory._

Gwen cupped her hand in the sunlight, closing her eyes and concentrating on how bright the sunlight would look like in her hands.

"Um, Gwen. Your hands are glowing. Are they supposed to do that?" She opened her eyes and jumped a bit. Her hands looked like they were put under a flashlight. She could feel the heat emanating from them.

"That was _not_ supposed to happen!" Gwen ran her hands through her hair, not noticing how it stung her scalp. "What if they stay like this forever? What if my hands burn up? Ohh…"

Percy raised an eyebrow. "First off, I would suggest keeping them away from anything flammable until you…'unglow' them. Second, if Ace doesn't kill us for not being there, you can ask him to help you fix it."

Gwen lowered her hands. They provided sufficient light. "All I wanted was a ball of light, like Aurora showed me…I can do Light Travel decently but I can't master a little ball of light. I'm a failure!"

"Who's Aurora? Isn't that those lights in the sky at Alaska?" Gwen was _so_ glad that Percy cared about her rants.

She sighed, "That's something different. Aurora is the goddess of the dawn. She would leave just before Apollo and announce that he was coming."

_Figures he would need someone to announce when he's coming. Wait a minute…_Why was Percy acting like he knew the god himself? As far as his memory went (which wasn't far) he had never met any gods besides Ace.

They had started walking in the huge cavern, away from the ladder. Gwen had no idea what to do with her hands, she felt stupid just holding them in front of her but she had no other idea of where to put them.

She stepped on a rock and she stumbled. The rock squeaked like a chew toy. She blinked and took a closer look. "Percy, there's a toy caterpillar here."

Percy stopped and looked at her. "So? What's so weird about that?"

She gave him an exasperated look. "A toy caterpillar, like the kind small children play with. We have a couple at camp." She picked it up. It didn't look that old.

Percy finally got the idea. "Why is that down here?"

The plastic started to melt in her hands. "I don't know but I don't think it's a good sign if something modern is down here."

"Hey! I found one of those toy tractors. It's covered in something…"

There was something she was missing, Gwen just knew it. Why would there be modern toys in some place so old?

A shadow moved in Percy's peripheral. He looked from the tractor, frowning. The water barely rippled but he saw it. Something was with them.

And if his ears weren't mistaking him, Percy could barely hear the sound similar to sandpaper against stone. _That_ didn't sound friendly at all. He recognised the sound but couldn't place it where he heard it from.

"Children," A female voice echoed against the cavern walls, "What are you doing in a dangerous place?"

The demigod duo froze. They couldn't see who was talking but their instinct told them they were in deep trouble.

* * *

**So...anybody there? I know I haven't updated in a month and I promised more updates since it's summer but..here's my list of excuses**

**1. My computer had a problem of turning on/off repeatedly so we sent it to get fix FOR THREE WEEKS (Which I was constantly worrying if we needed out hardrive wiped, which we didn't thank the gods)**

**2. It was really hard to write the beginning of this chapter. I mean, the beginning is like the fourth one I tried before I sent it to my Beta. She liked it though (Go read her stories, much better than mine.)**

**3. Do you know how hard it is to write on a laptop whose cursor moves randomly, thus messing up my work? **

**4. I was super lazy during the summer, equaling me wasting time so much that it was in the middle of the month before I noticed I hadn't updated.**

**And it's up to you if you choose to accept said excuses. I hope the longevity of this chapter will lower your wrath a bit.**

**Yeah, yeah, nothing much happens in this chapter, hence the title. The next chapter will have more action with this. Ace and Aurora are actual minor gods, btw. If any of you can pronounce Aesculapius, I give you an award. I can, since my Latin teacher taught how to speak Latin properly.**

**We're at eighty reviews! So close to one hundred, (I know I might not deserve twenty reviews but pretty please with your favourite demigod on top?) I enjoy every review I get, especially those when I haven't updated in a while. Keep them coming!**

**What did you think of this chapter? Like, Hate, Neutral?**

**Reviewer Question: What kind of Travel would you prefer. Air, Shadow, Water or Light? Or Are YOU going to see the LAST Harry Potter movie at midnight? I sure am.**

**Reviews make lovely presents for my inbox! (Please? Also, tell your friends and their friends about this story! I would appreciate it!)**

**Also, if anyone wants to make a banner, feel free to do so. :)**

**-The Scribe**


	13. XIII: In Which Things Pick Up

**RECAP (Since it's been a while. :D): Our beloved son of Poseidon arrives at a hostile First Legion. He meets Reyna, Hazel, Gwen, Bobby, Dakota and Todd. His first few days at camp weren't the best but he managed to survive. Lupa, the Roman equivalent to Chiron, has ordered a quest to stop an ancient monster from rising. She picks Percy, Bobby, Gwen and Todd. On the first day of said quest, they run into Cacus and after defeating him, they notice something wrong with the monsters. They aren't _dying_, The demigods then drive to Las Vegas, where the evil informant, Caligula informs them the location of said ancient monsters. While they were there, Percy meets the young servant Bora and subsequently saves the child demigod from being killed. The group gets separated, With Todd and Bobby landing in Montana while the others land in Hawaii. Aid comes to Gwen in the form of two minor gods, Aesculapius and Aurora. While Percy recuperates, Gwen learns the form of Light Travel. Percy wakes up four days later and is told of what happened. Gwen and Percy wait while Aesculapius shows Bora something. Percy finds an entrance to a cave and they decide to enter it, entering the lair of yet another monster...**

**_Chapter XIII: In Which Things Pick Up_**

Percy wished he brought a weapon. It was pretty obvious that this woman was some type of monster, or just a really, really lost lady.

She looked like one of those mothers from the fifties with a pale peach dress, a flowery apron and a pearl necklace.

"Children," she repeated. "Why are you down here?"

"Uh…" The woman didn't give Percy enough time to form a word before she was dragging Percy by his arm.

"You should be in the dining room. It's almost time for dinner." _Okay… This woman is totally off her rocker._

The daughter of Apollo followed Percy and the strange woman. Peering around curiously, she could see they were entering a completely different part of the cave.

For one thing, the floors changed from mud, puddles and rock to a white, clean tile. It looked like someone took a kitchen and just placed it there.

"Gwen, wipe your feet. You're tracking mud on the floor I just cleaned it." She hesitated before wiping her feet on the mat, clearly not seeing the point, considering the woman forgot about Percy's muddy feet.

"Are you two hungry?" The lady forced Percy to sit in a chair nearest to the kitchen. Gwen stayed by the doorway to the kitchen.

"Darling, why are you standing there? Please, come and sit down." Gwen had no other choice but to do what she said.

"Now make yourselves comfortable while I prepare the dinner."

Once the woman had left, the redhead tried to get up. She remained firmly stuck in the chair. Percy was also glued to the chair.

"This reminds me of Hansel and Gretel," He said as he tried to force himself out. Gwen could see his muscles straining.

A light bulb clicked in her mind. "_Of course. _Why didn't I notice earlier? I had just read about her in my books…"

Percy gave her a confused look. "Sunny, what are you talking about? If you hadn't noticed, we're stuck to some very uncomfortable chairs…"

"I know Percy. But I know who she is."

They finally noticed the silence of the area. _If I'm correct, we don't have much time._

"Percy, She's Lamia."

"Llama? She doesn't look like a llama." He gave her a strange look.

If Gwen could move her arms, they would've face palmed her face. "No, you _fatuus_. Lamia. L-A-M-I-A. She's a serpent-woman who eats children."

"Oh. So we're about to be eaten?"

_Why is he so thick-headed at the worst possible moments? _She swallowed the thought before it could leave her mouth. "To put it causally, yes. I don't know about you, but I don't want to be eaten. So we need to find a way out of these chairs and away from here…"

Gwen almost forgot about her glowing, overheated hands. By natural instinct, she had lifted them away from the wooden rocking chair she was forced to sit in.

She had an idea. An idea anybody with anger issues would love. "Percy, try to destroy the chair."

She had placed her hands on the wooden armrests, gripping them tightly. She wrinkled her nose as the wood began to blacken and release foul-smelling smoke. She pulled at the wood once eighty percent of it was black, wincing when the wood got its revenge by driving splinters into her forearm.

Both of her arms were free and that was an accomplishment, considering Lamia hadn't returned the moment smoke started to ruin her light blue walls.

"Gwen, I can't break my chair."

She looked at him, "What? You're saying that you can't break an assemblage of wood?"

The way Gwen said that make Percy's cheeks colour a bit. "I, and probably every other teenager can, but unlike you I'm completely glued to the chair."

"Children, dinner is ready." Instead of the click clackity sounds of high heels, there was the sounds of sandpaper against marble.

Lamia's bottom half was replaced by a serpentine body, it made her as tall as the NBA basketball basket height. The scales were an ugly, mucky brown-green.

"Gwen! How dare you destroy that chair!" Lamia bared her sharp, yellow teeth. "No dessert for you!"

Lamia swung her tail into Gwen, tossing her through the walls and back into the cavern.

Gwen coughed, trying to breathe and stand. The force of Lamia's tail broke the rest of the chair.

"Gwen! Duck!" Percy shouted, watching as the tail returned and barely missed the daughter of the sun god.

Automatically, she reached for her bow and quiver, before remembering that she left it in her room back at Ace's manor.

Lamia snarled and grabbed the dazed demigod by her foot, leaving her upside down. "You're a bit spicy for the main course."

"Gods, your breath smells _horrible._" Gwen was shaken out of her daze by Lamia's breath. It smelled like baby food that had spoiled beyond belief.

Lamia's face turned purple from rage. "You don't speak to a mother like that!" She shook Gwen violently before a wave of filthy cave water sprayed on her face.

She turned toward Percy, whose chair was knocked to the side. "No dessert for you either!"

From her upside down view, Gwen saw that the ceiling of the cavern was covered in stalactites. Every time Lamia moved, they shook. _This reminds me of a clichéd action movie or novel. _Gwen thought as she struggled to find a way to get rid of Lamia and to free Percy from his chair.

Before Gwen could finish planning, Lamia wrapped her appendage around Gwen, still upside down. "Children these days! What ever happened to obeying your elders?"

She ignored Lamia's griping, trying to aim for the ceiling. Gwen had trouble aiming for the ceiling. The blood rushing to her cranium wasn't helping with her accuracy. She could feel the excess heat gather in her hands as Lamia continued to complain and nag.

The light blinded her. Everything was coloured yellow or white and the only thing she was sure of was her bones being jolted when she landed in the water.

The whole cave shook as the stalactites fell to the ground. Gwen heard Lamia scream in pain and then the light faded.

Gwen supported herself against a rock, her vision was making everything rainbow coloured. "P-Percy? You alive?"

After a few moments of silence, Gwen was getting worried that she had accidentally killed him. She had no idea what to do if he was killed. Drag his body back to Ace and leave it?

"Gods! You could've warned me!" Percy's complaint wasn't exactly music to her ears but it was a relief hearing it anyways.

"You're alive." She stated blandly. _What is he exactly?_

He appeared beside her. "Gwen! You're bleeding!"

Gwen placed her hand on her cheek. It was wet and warm. "It's nothing. Let's get out of here."

Percy grabbed a small lamp that survived the rock slide. He turned it on and light filled the atmosphere. With one hand holding the lamp, he helped Gwen back up the ladder and to the manor, which had touched ground some point while they were gone.

* * *

"You okay?" He asked quietly once they were on the balcony.

Gwen took a deep breath. "Fine, a bit dizzy. I'm surprised it's mid-afternoon. It felt like we were in there for a few minutes.

"Yeah." he agreed. He wasn't sure if he should tell her but he felt that place was familiar to him, like being at a different store than one you usually went to. The territory was familiar but the outline wasn't. "I'm surprised Ace didn't notice that we were gone."

"Oh, he did. Don't you worry about that," Ace's deep voice penetrated their conversation. "So, were you two getting it on?"

The demigods simultaneously looked at each other and blushed. "I'll take that as a yes. Come on, you wasted a lot of time sucking face with each other."

"We weren't doing that!" Gwen feebly protested, chasing after Ace's retreating figure with Percy behind her.

"What? Do you call it something else nowadays?" Ace led them back to the study he and Percy had desecrated hours before. This time, it was spotless.

"Where's Bora?" Percy asked, standing when Ace sat down. After the recent incident, he was wary to sit anywhere.

Ace waved him off. "He's doing stuff. Now, Gwen, what do you know about Percy?"

She was taken aback by the question. "Well, he likes the colour blue, he's annoying and for some reason he can't get hurt-"

"Glad you noticed that," he interrupted. "That's what this 'meeting' is about. With the way you guys are going, he's going to get killed."

"How can I be killed?" Percy questioned. "Nothing can really hurt me."

"Tell me, how many hours of sleep do you get at that camp of yours?" Ace looked at him seriously.

Percy had to think about it. His stay at First Legion was short before being forced on this quest. "Seven hours maybe?"

"And how many hours you slept since you left?"

"Well, we barely started this quest…so before I was knocked out for four days, maybe three hours? What does me sleeping have to do with what Jupiter did?"

"You have a curse. A very fragile curse." Ace stated bluntly.

Percy blinked. "A curse? As in a voodoo doll curse or something?"

Ace waved his comment off. "Let's leave the Egyptian gods to their own thing, they have enough problems as it is. You have the Curse of Achilles."

"Achilles?" Gwen piped up, "As in the Great Achilles?"

Ace nodded. "Yeah, him. You know the story, right? His mother bathed him in the River Styx and he became invulnerable, blah blah blah."

"How is that fragile?" she asked, "He was invulnerable besides for the spot on his ankle."

"Exactly," Ace leaned back against the white couch. "He had a weak spot. Do you know yours, Percy?"

"Whoa, hold on a minute." Percy held his hands up. "Are you saying my mother bathed me in a river?" _What kind of mother does that? _Almost immediately after the thought, he felt just a bit guilty. If his mother actually bathed him in a river, it was probably for his own good.

He then thought about what Ace asked. Any time he tried to think of a viable part of his body that would serve as a weakness, that blonde girl appeared in his mind.

"I do," Percy lied. He really didn't want to tell that he had _no clue_ about this weak spot, besides a blonde girl.

Gwen raised an eyebrow at him. "Then I suppose you should keep it a secret? If anyone at First Legion knows about that, you're screwed."

Percy sighed, he had forgotten that most of the Praetors and campers hated him for no apparent reason. "Right."

Gwen turned to Ace, who was calmly watching them talk, like a therapist. Percy half expected him to say, _now, how do you feel about that? _Luckily, he didn't. "Was that all? We need to get to Bobby and Todd as soon as we can."

Percy tilted his head slightly. Now that she mentioned it, where were Bobby and Todd? He hadn't seen them all day.

She saw the look on his face. "They could either be stuck in Vegas or in Montana. I'm hoping Montana, since that's where Bobby had told Todd to Shadow Travel to."

Ace clapped his hands together. "Alright. It sounds like you're ready to leave but before you do that. Half-Sister, Aurora would like to see you before you leave." He nodded toward a wooden door that Percy hadn't seen when he came in the study. "Could you also bring the little cold guy as well? He should be done with his task now."

Gwen paused for a minute. She knew when someone wants to be alone. Praetors were masters at the subtle dismissal. She really didn't want to leave Percy, who couldn't keep a comment to himself, alone with a god, even a minor one.

On the other hand, this may be the last time she would have someone to teach her powers she should have. Aurora was fading fast.

Finally, Gwen bowed her head. "Of course, Lord Ace. I shall be right back."

She glanced back before closing the wooden door behind her.

* * *

It only took a couple of minutes before Gwen returned with Bora. He looked at Percy and smiled a bit.

Something occurred to Percy. "How are we going to get to Montana?"

Ace stood up, glancing at the watch that magically appeared on his wrist. "Gwen has that covered. I have to go, being lectured by your grandfather is not fun." He disappeared with a gust of wind, dissolving with the breeze.

Bora blinked, surprised. "Do they always travel like that?"

Gwen pulled her hair into a loose braid. "Luckily for us, he didn't transform into his true form. Something Percy might not even survive."

Bora gave Percy his bag of supplies. The small white-haired child had nothing to hold, this bothered Percy only slightly. After all, the kid was probably five or six, he couldn't carry much anyways.

Percy turned toward the redhead. "So, Sunny. How are we going to get to Montana?"

Gwen raised an eyebrow, she crossed her arms. "Sunny? Do you want a death sentence?"

"Well…" He shrugged. "I can't exactly die, can I?" He gave her a grin.

Gwen huffed and looked away. This was not the time to allow emotions, however brief or worrisome, show on her face. Until Bobby was back with them, she was the leader. "We are going to travel by light."

"Light? Isn't that impossible?"

She sighed, half in frustration and half in amusement. "For mortals…yes. But I know how. Take my hands."

Percy took her left hand and Bora took her right. They were soft, as usual and comfortably warm. "Don't give me cooties."

Gwen closed her eyes. "No promises."

* * *

Percy expected it to be cold in Montana. He didn't expect a freaking _blizzard._ After Gwen's light had faded the cold set in almost instantly.

Even with the light winter articles Gwen gave him, he was still freezing. Bora was doing way better than him. It looked like he wasn't even affected by the snow and cold.

"Bora?" Percy asked, "Aren't you cold?"

Bora turned his head and shook his head. "No, Percy. I'm not cold." He wasn't even wearing a proper coat. _This kid's tough. I'll give him that._

Gwen called their attention back to her, rolling a piece of paper. She looked a little discouraged. "The weather's too foul to go searching right now. Let's wait and find someplace until we can see more than two feet in front of us."

Bora was looking through the trees. He squinted. "What about there?" He pointed in the direction he was staring at. "I see a large warehouse. It looks empty."

Gwen frowned and looked in the direction. "I can't see anything, Bora. You sure? Storms like this can play tricks on your eyes."

He nodded. "I won't lie to you, Mistress. I see a warehouse. It's only a couple of yards away."

Gwen hesitated for a moment before nodding. "We can stay there until the worst of the storm is out of the way. Come on, Percy."

The warehouse was filled with stone and old statues, Percy noted as he held the heavy iron door open for his companions. The temperature was only warmer by a miniscule amount.

"Jeez, I can barely move in here. So many freaking statues. Percy, help me move them. Bora, see if you can find any fuel for the small fire." Gwen ordered.

"These statues are weird." He lifted a statue of a tree stump. "Who'd buy this crap?"

"Narnia? Crazy millionaires? I have no clue." Gwen pushed a deer statue. "The faces look scared."

A few minutes of silence passed between the three demigods. Then out of nowhere, a sharp stone hit Percy in the back of the head. It didn't hurt, it just surprised him.

He rubbed the spot out of pure instinct and looked at Gwen. "Hey! Why'd you throw that at me?"

Gwen set down one of the last statues they were planning to move. "What? I didn't do anything."

Percy rolled his eyes. "You're the only person here besides Bora and I don't even see him near me. Don't lie."

Gwen straightened and placed her hands on her hips. "Why are you being all fussy about that? It's not like it hurt or anything."

"Whatever. Do we have enough room? These ugly statues are pretty heavy."

She nodded. "Yeah. I think we do. You still cold after moving all that stuff?"

Percy rubbed his arms. "Kind of. It's bearable now."

Another stone hit Percy in the head. "Bora! Are you the one throwing stones?"

"Ow! One just hit me!" Gwen rubbed her cheek. "Bora! Come here!"

Bora didn't come. But more stones did. Sharper and heavier than the last two.

Gwen covered her head. "Where are they coming from! Angry nymphs or dryads?"

Percy suddenly had the feeling they were being watched. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw movement between the statues. He pulled out Tempestas and looked around.

The sculpture of a bear tackled Percy. It felt like being rammed by a semi-truck. Not a very pleasant feeling.

Percy barely dodged the swoop of his claws. He backed up as the bear roared and made another attack.

The bear growled as Percy got up. _Definitely not Pooh Bear. _"Percy!" Gwen shouted. "Behind you!"

He turned around as he was back slapped by a tree branch. If it wasn't for his invincibility, the force would've killed him. He tried to steady himself but tripped over the tree stump bust.

The roots of the stump wrapped around his legs. Percy slashed at them but only produced sparks and cuts.

Gwen was already in the hands, or paws of a mountain lion effigy. She had hard time breathing, with a twenty pound foot pressing down her back. Her bow was knocked away, under the figurine of a moose. And her quiver of arrows was crushed by the mountain lion before it undertook her.

"Don't kill them, dearies. It would ruin the final look." The female voice ordered softly. Percy stopped struggling. Where had he heard that voice before?

Before he could figure out, a woman cloaked in black walked toward them. The way she dressed reminded Percy of those Middle Eastern women. The only skin that was showing was her hands, coffee coloured and elegant. Something he imagined a rich grandmother's hand would look like.

The roots of the stump wrapped around his arms uncomfortably, knocking Tempestas away and forcing his arms above his head. "Who are you?" He blurted out.

The woman laughed. Definitely a grandmother. "Percy, I'm hurt. You don't remember me?"

Percy blinked. "Uhm. No, sorry. I'm an amnesiac after all. I don't remember my own mother."

"Your mother!" The woman huffed. "Don't even mention her! If she didn't hook up with Poseidon, you wouldn't be here!"

_Poseidon? Doesn't she mean Neptune? _Gwen squirmed under the puma. She could faintly hear the blizzard outside get louder. It almost snuffed out whatever the woman was saying.

"I'm sorry for existing?" Percy said.

"Pah!" The woman turned around. "A simple apology won't work. You sliced my head clean off!"

Percy tried to move his arms. A thought popped into his mind. "Medusa. You're Medusa."

Medusa clapped her hands sarcastically. "Fantastic! So Hera didn't screw you over completely. That's not good news for my patron."

"Who's your patron?" Gwen asked. If she remembered correctly from her book of monsters, Medusa wasn't the brightest match in the box.

"Gaea. She took me from Tartarus and increased my powers in exchange for helping her cause."

Medusa trailed her fingers across the face of the bear behind Percy. It shuddered and went back to standing on both feet, easily towering Medusa. "I can control my statues now. They've been oh so helpful. Especially with that Hades kid. He was a pain."

Gwen jerked her head up. "Pluto? Todd was here? Was there a boy with auburn hair?"

Medusa glanced at her. "He was tough to keep still. Destroyed a couple of my favourite statues."

Gwen stared at Medusa. She could faintly hear the blizzard roar even louder outside. She hoped that Bobby wasn't another addition to Medusa's collection. "Did you turn them to stone?"

She sighed and crossed her arms. "No. Gaea needs an outlet for the Doors of Death-"

"Medusa!" A somewhat less eloquent voice shrieked, echoing against the walls of the warehouse. "He won't shut up! Make him shut up!"

Medusa groaned. "Stheno! Go back into the office. I'm a bit busy!"

Percy blinked. Medusa had sisters? He wondered if she was the oldest. From the sounds of it, she was.

Stheno appeared through the maze of statues, dragging a struggling, bound Todd behind her. She was far from elegant, compared to Medusa. Gwen was reminded of those lumpy grandmothers who worked at the supermarkets whenever she had the chance to leave camp. But instead of grey, unkempt hair, a mass of coral snakes.

Medusa turned toward her sister, forgetting about the two captured demigods. "Why did you bring him here?"

Stheno released Todd's collar. Todd yelped in pain as his head hit the concrete floor. His white plume of hair was gone, replaced by his natural pitch black hair. He had a bruise across his forehead and cuts on his arms and face, like he landed in a tree. "Ow! You guys sure know how to take care of a hostage."

"I want you to turn him into stone! He's so annoying. The other kid is _way _quieter than this one! Euryale said so!"

"You sent her to get the other one! You weren't supposed to! This one is just fine! The other one is too weak. Gaea said so herself!"

The two Gorgons started to bicker. _Well, there goes her monologue. _Percy thought, slightly amused that two monsters could bicker like that.

Gwen was trying to think. The paw pressing on her back started to get more uncomfortable. _She said that there was another child of Pluto and talking about the Doors of Death in the prophecy. Lupa would want to know about this. She'll send a scout group for the second child of Pluto. What else do they know?_

She tried to see if she could squirm her way out of the grip. The mountain lion didn't move or react as Gwen slowly made her way out. _Medusa probably reverted it without out notice, or it's really stupid._

Her back stung from the scratches the paw made. The Gorgons hadn't noticed her, still bickering about who was in charge._They really act like sisters. Who knew?_

Gwen started to crawl slowly toward Percy. He detected her and shook his head. _Go to Todd. _He mouthed. _I'm fine._

She paused for a moment then nodded. Todd was blocked from the view of the monsters by a couple of fountains. If she didn't tread carefully, she would be caught and turned into stone.

As Gwen got closer to Todd, she put a finger to her lips. If he kept quiet, the blizzard outside could mask most of the noise she made as she got closer to Todd.

"Lycaon is looking for the other demigod!" Medusa told her sister. Todd listened while Gwen untied him. _Lycaon? The Werewolf king? He's supposed to be in Canada! Did the scouts lie?_

The scouts he sent to check on Lycaon and reported that he was still in Canada. They had lost a Mercury camper in Chicago. Todd hoped that Lycaon escaped his 'prison' and his scouts didn't lie to him.

That would ruin his reputation. Being the son of the owner of the Underworld, where Tartarus was, he was expected to keep an eye on the powerful monsters. So Lupa had given him Dakota's scouting duties, much to the latter's displeasure. It wasn't like Todd was obsessed with his reputation, unlike Bobby or Kim but it was pretty difficult to keep a decent reputation without stereotypes ruining it.

Todd rubbed his raw, red wrists. He nodded in thanks to Gwen.

Gwen started to whisper but was interrupted by the windows shattering, one by one.

"Ack! The windows broke! What do we do, Medusa?"

"Don't let the Hades child escape!"

Todd and Gwen ducked behind the fountain. "Should we get Percy?" He whispered.

She shook her head. "He's stuck. Let's kill the sisters first. You take Stheno ad I take Medusa."

Todd started to nod but stopped. "Do you have any spare weapons? They took my sword and hid it."

Gwen cursed. She completely forgot to pick up her bow. "They're somewhere by Percy."

"Then let's get them- duck!" Todd forced her down, barely missing the stone club of a Cyclopes. The fountain shattered, splashing cold water everywhere.

"Take care of them but keep the Hades kid alive." Medusa ordered.

Stheno had disappeared. The Cyclopes growled and swung his club again.

"How are we going to kill him?" Gwen asked as they dodged again.

"I have no clue."

* * *

Percy didn't really think when he told Gwen to get Todd. Maybe because he could use the strength to break the roots. No such luck.

He shivered. It was getting colder now that the windows broke.

"My dear, you still look like your father." Medusa cooed. "How about you reconsider my offer. If you remember it."

"Sorry, but I like being flesh and bone and not stone."

"That's too bad. It would've saved you a lot of pain." Medusa started to pull the cloth off her face and Percy forced himself to look at his feet.

"Gaea made it so that I can slowly turn anything to stone by looking at it. It's faster if I made eye contact." The sound of snakes hissing filled Percy's ears.

Percy started to lose the feeling in his fingers and toes. "It can be a pain sometimes."

He tried to swallow the panic setting in. It felt like the pressure was increasing inside him. He started to struggle now.

The ocean roared in his ears. He couldn't feel his forearms now, or the cold. His stomach started to hurt, along with his chest, making it difficult to breathe. _What a horrible way to go._

Medusa grabbed his chin. "You're in pain. Just look at me and it'll all over."

Percy forced himself to look up.

Medusa had almond shaped, dark brown eyes.

The pressure was gone.

* * *

Water blasted from the windows and every open crevice, mixing with the snow to create an ice-cold slush.

Gwen and Todd braced themselves against the force. The force from the rushing water broke one of the walls. They could barely hear Medusa's screams as she is taken away by the water into the blizzard, along with the statues.

Todd held on tight to Gwen. _Dang, Percy sure let loose._

Eventually, the water slowed in its force, leaving Todd and Gwen completely soaked and up to their knees in freezing water.

"Percy!" Todd called, rushing toward where he assumed the boy was. "You alive?"

Percy lay in a dry circle, not moving at all. Todd kneeled by him and lifted him from the ground. "Dude. Wake up!"

"Percy?" Bora asked, standing by a soaked Bobby. He wasn't soaked for some reason.

"Bora! Where did you go?" Gwen asked, turning toward them.

He opened his mouth then closed it, glancing at Percy. "I noticed a door and found Master Reuven encased on stone. I bought him out here, and then we were splashed."

"You pushed Bobby's statue out here? By yourself?" Gwen was mildly impressed. Bobby weighed about one hundred and twenty pounds. And if he was turned to stone, the weight would've increased.

Bora bowed his head and nodded. "It was difficult, but yes. I apologize for not coming back when I should have. Is Percy okay?"

Todd shrugged. "I don't hear any ringing or bells in my ears. So he must be alive."

"I am alive." Percy mumbled, keeping his eyes closed. "Very sore though."

Todd grinned, helping Percy stand up. "Glad to hear that, it wouldn't be fair if you died on me."

"How wouldn't it be fair?"

"Then my father would have to deal with you."

Percy smiled a bit. "Whatever."

"Todd, bring him over here. We can't risk everyone getting hypothermia." Gwen nodded to the blizzard outside. The blizzard's roar had become a soft growl.

"Right."

* * *

Once everyone was dry and settled, Gwen demanded the details of what happened when they were separated.

Bobby pulled the blanket closer. "Almost right after we landed here, I was knocked out. I had no clue how long I was out. When I woke up, they had tied up Todd and tried to kill me with their stupid statues. Then one of the sisters caught me by surprise, making me look at Medusa's face. After that, I felt nothing until I was un-stoned."

Gwen handed Todd and Bobby cups of hot chocolate. She looked at Todd expectantly.

Todd blew on his cup and sighed. "I was forced awake and they asked me a bunch of questions."

"Like?" She prompted.

"Who my godly parent was, what rank I was, etc."

Gwen looked out the window of the office. She sent Bora to see if the sisters or any other monsters would return. "What did they mean, about needing a son of Pluto for the Doors of Death?"

"I have no clue. From what I can infer, the doors need a sacrifice. Why they need me or my 'brother' I have no clue."

"So you believe them when they said you had a brother?" Bobby muttered. He wasn't in a good mood. Not only was he sore from being turned to stone, but his pride was damaged. He couldn't believe that he failed to kill two Gorgons and the fact he was saved, (albeit, a termed used loosely) by Percy.

He looked at the son of Neptune. Percy had been quiet the whole time. He was staring at his cup of chocolate, mouthing things to himself. Bobby was surprised that he was still awake. From the sounds of it, Percy seemed to release the ocean in the warehouse.

"I'm not sure whether to believe it or not." Todd looked mildly troubled. _So that voice was right. I do have a sibling. _"I won't be surprised if they were lying to taunt us. But if it's true, we need to get my sibling back to camp as soon as possible. Especially if Lycaon is looking for him."

"Nico." Percy mumbled, looking at Todd. "His name is Nico."

Before Todd could respond, Bobby glared at him. "How do _you_ know?"

Percy shrugged, setting down his cup. "I don't know. The name just popped into my mind."

"Bull crap! You're hiding information from us!"

"Bobby!" Gwen scolded.

He ignored the warning. "You may have fooled everyone else by that stupid amnesiac act. But I'm not. Just come out with the truth!"

Percy looked up at Bobby. He scowled. "It's not an act! Why are you picking on me? Just because I beat you in a stupid fight?"

Bobby's cheeks flushed pink. "It's not that! I think it's suspicious that you appeared, with a strange sword after our leader disappeared. And I think I'm the only one."

"Bobby!" Gwen snapped. "Calm down!"

"I've been calm since we started this quest. I'm just tired of the complications Percy brings1 I find it very doubtful that you're glad he saved a stupid five year old. In my opinion, the kid's better off dead."

Percy stood up. "Don't talk about Bora that way! You're just like your dumb father! Only thinking about fighting and power! I bet no one has even noticed that Bora is just a little kid. You Romans just care about power and status! It's so annoying how shallow you guys are! You train and train. I hate it!"

Todd frowned. "Hey, guys. You need to calm down-"

Bobby rushed forward and punched Percy. "Don't talk about camp like that!"

It all went downhill from there. Gwen and Todd tried to separate the two but to no avail.

Percy wasn't paying attention to his surroundings. The only goal in his mind was to defeat Bobby.

He managed to pin Bobby to the ground, with his hands around his throat. _Come on, just end his life now. _A voice goaded inside his head. Part of Percy knew that he shouldn't listen to the voice. He didn't want to become a murderer like in his dream.

His hands started to squeeze.

Bobby's dark amber eyes glared at him with hatred. Percy could barely hear Gwen and Todd.

His eyes started to close when Todd tackled him, pinning him to the wall and shaking him out of his dark state.

"Percy." Todd said, looking very serious. His dark blue eyes looked angry. "Calm down."

The brunt of the situation hit Percy in full force. It was like being back in that arena but severely different. Watching someone get killed and being the killer were two different things.

He almost killed Bobby. And he didn't even realize it. Percy felt trapped and constricted.

Percy wanted to get out of here. He shoved Todd away, who protested. "What are you doing? Percy!"

He ran down the stairs, past Bora who had returned from his scouting. "Percy-"

Percy ran out of the warehouse, not caring where he went.

* * *

The son of Neptune panted, sinking to his knees. He could feel the cold but he took no notice of it.

He actually began to wonder who he was. Was the dream he had back in Hawaii true? Or just a warning of whom he was?

Some tiny part of Percy knew that this was totally out of character for him but he didn't know who he was anyways. So why should it matter?

He stared at a nearby creek as the thoughts he really didn't pay attention to the thoughts that started creeping in his mind.

Rubbing his temples to stop the on-coming headache, he closed his eyes. "Let's get the basics out. Then I can worry about my personality."

"My name is Percy Jackson, I'm sixteen, my favourite colour is blue, I have a sword named Riptide, I'm cursed, I know how to fight, I _might_ be in love with a girl who has princess hair, and I know a kid named Nico…"

He paused. "And I'm the son of Ne- the Sea God. I'm the son of the Sea God." He repeated it to himself.

Percy rubbed the back of his neck, making sure he didn't miss anything. His hand brushed against his necklace. He completely forgot about the necklace he was wearing.

"There's also this…" He untied the necklace from his neck. The clay beads were cold to his fingers. "I have this necklace."

He rolled the bead with the trident. Out of all of them, this one was his favourite. It brought him a feeling of comfort.

_This bead commemorates the first Son of the Sea God at this camp!_

The title was a sense of neutrality. It offered no clue of status and Percy liked that. He was just a simple demigod. Well, he wanted to be a simple demigod. That much he knew.

What else did he know? The more he thought about it, the more the headache persisted. "I'm loyal. And very lazy. I'm short tempered, and rash."

Percy didn't feel completely satisfied with that. "This is hard for anyone without memories. Do I even know how to ride a bike? Everyone says that no one forgets that."

"You'd be an idiot if you forgot something as simple as that."

Percy jumped and turned around. "Who's there?"

Todd appeared out of the shadows, literally. He held up his hands. "Calm down. It's just me. Your good ol' friendly King of Jewels."

"You're far from friendly. And King of Jewels? Really?" Percy raised an eyebrow.

Todd crosses his arms and leaned against the tree, "Yeap. I wanted the King of Ghosts spot, but that was taken."

Percy relaxed a tiny bit. "Who wants a job with that title?"

"I do."Todd shrugged. "Sounds more fun than my current title. You okay?"

Percy looked at the still snow. When had the storm stopped? "How's Bobby?"

Todd played with a piece of cloth he took out of his pocket. "His throat is bruised but other than that. He's okay."

After two minutes of silence. Todd asked. "Did you really want to kill him?"

Percy sighed. "I don't know. Part of me wants to, and another part of me doesn't. He's not a monster."

"What's the difference? I've seen Bobby fight and I can sincerely say he's a monster."

Percy glanced at him. "Would you kill him the first chance you got?"

Todd nodded. "Absolutely. I might feel a tiny bit of regret but I would get over it. We aren't the best of friends."

"What! Why?" Percy couldn't believe it. Weren't they comrades anyways?

"I don't know." He shrugged. "I just will. I'll admit it confused me when you wouldn't kill anyone that's not a monster, even if it's to your benefit."

"So I'm strange because I won't kill my comrades?"

"Bobby's your comrade?"

Percy paused before answering. "Yes, I do care if he gets hurt. But if a situation rises where I have to kill him, I won't kill him."

Todd stuffed the cloth in his pocket. "You're too soft to be a Roman…"

Percy waited for the insult.

"I guess we'll have to deal with that."

* * *

"Psst! Gwen! Psst!"

Gwen woke up and rubbed her eyes. "Hmm?"

"Good! You're awake!" She propped herself up on her elbows and looked to the source of the voice.

"Reyna? Why are you IM-ing me? It's forbidden to do it on quests!" Gwen whispered. She checked to make sure Bobby and Bora were asleep. Todd was outside of the office, keeping guard and watching for Percy in case he returned.

"I know." The Iris message was a bit hazy. "But I have to tell you something."

"What?"

"You know the civil war? Well, I think it has to do with the second prophecy." Reyna looked around her for a minute. "Where is it… it was here a minute ago-Ah! Here it is."

She picked up a worn, leather book. "I found this while…exploring."

"What is it? It looks like a journal to me." Gwen yawned.

"Exactly! It's a journal from a Confederate soldier. His hand writing is horrible but that's not important. He talks of these orange shirt demigods."

"Your point?"

"Remember when Percy arrived? He was wearing an _orange shirt_. And I'm pretty sure that the soldier was talking about the Union."

Gwen thought about this. "So? They could be Roman demigods that deflected from First Legion."

Reyna set down the book and picked up another one, flicking through it. "That's what I thought but this demigod said that 'The oranges would be weak without their horse-man. They know nought of our power.'"

"Horse-man? You mean a centaur? A centaur leading demigods into war? I don't even think they know the meaning of war." Gwen snorted quietly. She remembered how chaotic centaurs were. _I hope they don't burst in at this year's Lupercalia._

"This centaur might be different. I've been doing some research and in one of the really, really old encyclopaedias I found-"

"Wait," Gwen pointed a finger at her. "How old? As in one of the upper levels old?"

"No!" Reyna was quick to retort. "I found it on the first floor, behind some tactical plans for Sabotage."

"Anyways, it briefly mentioned a centaur named Chiron." The name sounded strange, with the Latin dialect they were used to. She pronounced it like _Sheer-un. _"It said that he trained demigods."

"A centaur that takes demigods and trains them? What does this have to do with the second prophecy again? I'm kind of losing you."

Reyna sighed, rubbing her head. _She must be IM-ing from her tent. Her hair is down. _Gwen had never seen Reyna's hair down outside of her sleeper tent. "Sometimes, I keep forgetting that you aren't in my head. Remember the first line of the prophecy?"

"_Seven half-bloods shall answer the call_. It's something I can't forget." Gwen kept having nightmares about the Oracle ever since Lupa took her to see it.

It clicked in her mind. "Are you saying that this Chiron has some of the seven demigods?"

Reyna nodded quickly. She was excited that Gwen figured it out before she told her. "I mean, it's _possible_. After all, I find it a bit difficult to fathom that seven demigods from camp are going. There _has_ to be another source of demigods. Look at the Second Titan War. We defeated Crius and Jason toppled the throne of Saturn but did you ever wonder about Mt. Olympus?"

Gwen's elbows started to hurt so she moved to a sitting position. "Lupa told us that the gods protected it and defeated Saturn."

Reyna looked behind her; she thought she heard a twig snap. "Shoot. I think someone is listening in on me. I have to go. I promise I'll figure this out the next time we see each other."

"Reyna! Wait-" Gwen started to protest. The Iris message disappeared.

She considered telling this to Bobby but then she remembered the outburst of anger from him. She decided to tell him after the quest was done. The pursuit of this ancient monster shouldn't be jeopardized by accusations just yet.

_Things are getting more complicated by the minute._

* * *

Gwen didn't ask where or when Percy returned. She was just glad that he had returned and hadn't run off.

She had talked to Bobby, who was still angry from last night. 'I don't care if you hate his guts, this quest had been trouble enough and I'll be damned if we return as failures. I know you don't tolerate that and neither would Lupa. If you kill Percy, Lupa will kill you.' Those were her exact words.

Bobby wasn't happy about that but he was glad that his girlfriend didn't make him apologize to the fish face. He wouldn't apologize to him anyways.

He valued his pride too much for that.

"So, Todd," Gwen started as they were packing. "Did the Gorgons mention anything about monsters?"

Todd cracked his knuckles. "Um, let's see… they did mention a junkyard in Arizona. Lizard Claw or something like that."

Gwen pulled out a map from her bag. She unrolled it and placed it on the desk. It looked like an ordinary highway map. Except for the glowing red dots, they varied in sizes. The dot in New York was the size of a bottle cap, along with another one in Los Angeles. Near San Francisco, there was a dot the size of a pepper corn.

"What's that?" Percy asked, looking over Gwen's shoulder.

She ignored the warm breath on her neck. "Something I nabbed from Ace's study. It's a map showing places where magic is. The one in New York shows Mt Olympus and the one in LA shows the Underworld."

"So the dot near Frisco is camp?" Percy guessed.

Gwen nodded. "You said Arizona, right Todd?"

Bobby looked at the map, frowning. "Don't tell me we're going to search the whole state of Arizona."

"We're going to miss Lupercalia if we do that!" Todd whined. "Last year's wasn't as fun because of the war."

"What's Lupercalia?" Percy asked, confused. To him, it sounded like an old band.

"Lupercalia is a Roman holiday to honour Lupa." Bora spoke, startling the trio. He had been so quiet that they forgot he was here. "Three days of festivals, drinking and adultery."

Gwen cleared her throat. "We don't do adultery but we do have alcohol. It's one of the few times we can really relax and have fun."

_You must have a pretty high ego if there's a holiday named after you. _The thought amused Percy. "Isn't underage drinking illegal?"

"Your point?" Bobby asked sarcastically. "We fight monsters that give mortals bed-wetting nightmares. A little law-breaking won't hurt us."

Percy blinked then turn to Gwen. "What are we going to do?"

She pointed to three spots on the map. "Here are three towns with Claw in the name. No Lizard Claw. I was thinking that we check the closest one. Which is Gila Claw."

"How are we going to get there? We're in the middle of Montana." Bobby pointed out.

Gwen played with her braid. "That, I haven't thought of yet. We have no means of travel unless Todd offers his Shadow Travel services."

"No thanks," Todd snorted. "The last time we did that, we got separated. What about your Light Travel?"

She shook her head. "I need it to be sunny and it's really cloudy."

While they were talking, Bobby looked at the map. Another dot, like the one near camp, appeared on Long Island. He blinked and it disappeared. _Probably a monster hideout._

He took a closer look at the map. "Why don't we ride a train?"

When his companions looked at him, surprised. He grumbled. "I'm not all brawns. The map shows a train track leading south. One of the stations is near here. Half a day's walk if we leave soon."

Gwen took a closer look. "You're right. And if Lady Fortuna smiles upon us, we can find a train that's heading south."

"We need money for tickets, don't we?" Percy said. "and we have none."

Todd waved him off. "Don't worry, Perce. Bora's looking upstairs, where the manager's office is. I'm pretty sure Medusa has some cash."

Gwen rolled up the map and put it back in her bag. "Then it's settled. We'll catch a train to Arizona."

* * *

**Right, you guys are mad at me for not updating for another month, blah blah blah. I have no real excuses up my sleeve, just the fact I'm lazy during the summer and I had a bit of writer's block writing this chapter. Also, this is the first time I've updated during the day...I usually update during unholy hours at night. (I'm half expecting for my mom to tell me go to bed.)**

**Anyways, school is coming up soon. Seven days from now. And in order to meet my two deadlines (First one is by October 4th and the second is before November so I could use the sequel for my NaNoWriMo story) I've decided to either make 4-5 really long chapters or 8-10 little chapters. What do you guys think? I'm more for the really long chapters myself...**

**Hopefully, the next chapter will be up by next week.**

**Anyone get the really obvious reference? Kudos to you if you did!**

**Catch any grammar errors? Tell me in a review (buh no flames...)**

**Reviewer Question: Coke or Pepsi? School or Vacation? Long or Short chapters?**

**Remember, reviews make lovely presents for my inbox! (So close to one hundred reviews! You guys can do it!)**

**-The Scribe**

**BTW before I forget, I'm considering getting a Twitter for you guys. So you can nag me whenever more than a week's passed and I haven't updated. Yes or No?**


	14. XIV: In Which It's Story Time

_**Chapter XIV: In Which It's Story Time**_

"I'm so bored!" Todd complained while they were waiting for the train to come.

"Well, don't draw attention to us." Bobby muttered, closing his eyes. The ticket master was suspicious of four teens and one five year old without adult supervision. It took a lot of bargaining on Todd's part to convince him to give the tickets to them. Medusa had more than enough money for five tickets. "If we get kicked out, I'm gonna make sure your father will be the only one to deal with you."

Todd rolled his eyes. "Yeah, whatever. I'd like to see you catch me."

"Stop hiding in that stupid hat of yours."

"You're just scared of my ability with said hat."

Bobby scowled a bit. "No! I think it's stupid that you hide under that."

"Not my fault my hat gives me your-"

Gwen interrupted them. "Leave that for Lupercalia, guys. Like seriously." She turned her attention back to Bora.

Bobby bit back his retort and closed his eyes, crossing his arms. "Fine."

Percy leaned back against the bench. "There are fights during Lupercalia?"

Todd pulled a red lollipop from the candy bag he got at the station store. He removed the wrapper, stuffing it in his pocket. "Yeah, purely for entertainment though. No killing is allowed."

"What happens if you do?"

Todd shrugged, swirling the candy in his mouth. "I dunno. I know it's going to be a pretty severe punishment."

"You guys just drink, relax and fight? That's all?"

"Basically. I mean, we trade stuff as well. I hope Dakota brings that stereo system he promised…"

"Trade stuff? Like an open market?"

"Yeah, services, items, etc."

"Services?" With the way Todd described it, First Legion was almost like a town of sorts. _I wonder who's in charge of the garbage. _Percy thought.

He nodded. "Yeah, Bobby's Centuria offers the fights and weapons; Sean's offers food and such."

"What about you?"

"Well…I really can't offer anything." Todd shrugged, and tilted his head a bit to the right. "The train's here."

On cue, the train slowed to a stop in the station. An overcome announces the arrival.

Percy blinks in surprise and Todd chuckled "Don't worry. The earth just vibrated. I ain't an Oracle. I'll teach you sometime."

"I swear you're cockier than Bobby." Percy muttered, getting up and grabbing his bag,

"Thanks for the compliment."

The ticket master narrowed his eyes as he watched the group get on the train. _He should know that they're on their way._

He reached for the telephone. After a few seconds of silence, a voice answered. "What?"

The ticket master swallowed his fear. "I have more demigods riding the trains."

"Who are they?"

"They're children of Neptune, Pluto, Mars, Apollo and-"

"Neptune?" The voice on the other side snapped. "Are you sure?"

"Y-yes. He reeks of the sea and earth."

There was a minute of silence before the voice replied, excitement in his voice. "What train are they taking?"

"The 10:30 Ixion."

"Perfect." he hung up, surprising the male on the other side.

"Wai-"The protest stopped when he heard the voice that was just on the phone in his head. _And then a vortex appeared under the poor human, sucking him into a terrible void._

Just as the sentence was over, the vortex sucked the faux body and the spirit into the void. _The end._

* * *

Once they were inside the train, they took their respective seats. Percy looked out the window. It would take about five or six hours to get to Arizona and probably another hour or two to find someone willing to drive them in the middle of nowhere.

Percy yawned. _This would be a good time to catch up on my sleep. Nothing exciting ever happens in trains, except in western movies. And this is far from a western._

He shifted into a comfortable position (as comfortable as it could get in a seat) and closed his eyes.

After Percy fell asleep, the other demigods followed suit as well.

*0*0*0*0*0*

Bobby moved the tree branches away from his face. Where was he? The last thing he remembered was closing his eyes on the train.

_Is this a dream? I don't remember leaving the train…_Bobby looked around; he was in the middle of some forest. The trees covered most of the sunlight but with the temperature, he estimated that it was around noon.

_I should walk around to see if there is anyone else in my dream. _His internal radar told him nothing that he didn't already know. He was southwest of the camp, so he decided to head in that direction.

It was silent, besides for the occasional sound of the birds and the various animals. This was unusual for one of his dreams. Bobby's dreams usually took place in barren landscapes or empty cities.

Bobby rubbed one of his arms, feeling slightly uncomfortable in a place out of his 'comfort zone'. He didn't like being watched where he couldn't see who was watching him.

_Jeez, Bobby. You need to relax; after all it's your dream. I can't get hurt in my dream. _Bobby berated himself mentally.

Eventually, a dirt road appeared through the foliage. Down the road, he could see the beginning of a storm.

"A storm? No thanks." Bobby muttered, deciding to walk up the road.

On one side of the road, after a couple minutes of walking silently, was a clearing with a river. Above the river bank, there was a group of rabbits, all coloured differently, hopping about. In the clear river, Bobby could see frogs.

Bobby continued walking up the road, the frogs or rabbits didn't interest him.

On the other side, Bobby spotted wolves dashing through the forest. He wanted to join and talk to them, but for some reason, he had the urge to continue up the road.

He passed a barn with ox and horses. The smell reminded him of his least favourite place in camp. The stables.

The sound of someone on the road filled his ears and he turned around, almost tripping over a large rabbit.

"Hey! Watch it!" The hare snapped. "Jeez, you're much slower than Tort!"

Bobby was slightly surprised. He knew that some animals talk, but why would a rabbit talk in his dream? And about a freaking turtle?

Before Bobby could reply, the rabbit bounded off. "Even if this is my dream, it's really weird."

He followed the dust trail left by the rabbit, slightly curious now.

The heat of the day increased as he left the forest and into farming land. He found the rabbit sleeping under a tree, near a small house.

With the silence of the outside environment, Bobby could clearly hear arguing from inside the house. "I'm better than both of you guys! I don't need anyone else's help!"

"Shut up Tim! I'm faster than you!"

Bobby's curiosity got the better of him and he went up the stairs of the house.

He knew it was rude to just open the door and let himself in, but it was his dream so he should have the right. He reached for the doorknob and was surprised his hand went through it.

"Wha-"Just then, the door burst open.

"Why do you want us to get sticks, Father?" The first voice spoke, Tim. Bobby wasn't fast enough to hide.

Tim stopped in front of Bobby, his sight still on his father. He had long brown hair tied with a pony tail and he was wearing a beige toga with a blue belt. His brown eyes were narrowed.

Bobby looked behind Tim and saw two more boys dressed similarly as their brother. One of them had blonde hair, cut short with hazel eyes and a yellow belt while the boy beside him had black, shoulder length hair and dark eyes with a blue belt.

_They're clearly brothers, maybe triplets._ Bobby reasoned.

Past the boys, an elderly man spoke quietly. "I will show you once you return."

Tim scowled as he and his brothers left.

"Ahh, son of Mars, what brings you here?" The man spoke to him, surprising Bobby.

"Uh, I really don't know." Bobby answered, rubbing the back of his head.

The elder seemed to start a reply but he shook his head and smiled. The smile made Bobby feel like he did something stupid, like a grandfather scolding his grandchild. "You will know soon enough."

Just then, the triplets returned, each with a bundle of sticks. "Father, we have returned with the sticks. Will you tell us now why you need them? It's too early to start a fire." The yellow-belt brother said.

"Calm down, Jim. I will show you." He took the bundles of sticks and made one medium sized bundle, wrapping it in a silk ribbon.

"Now, I want each of you to try breaking the bundle, do not force yourself. Vim, you shall be first." He handed the sticks to the boy with the blue belt.

Vim's smirk faded as the bundle didn't break. He scowled as he passed it to Tim. Again, the bundle didn't bend under Tim's force. Bobby could see his muscles strain.

"Tim! It's my turn! Father said not to force yourself!" The blonde said. After sending a glare at his brother, Tim gave the stack to him. He took a deep breath and tried to do what his father said.

_They either must not be very strong or that pile of sticks is super strong. Maybe it's bamboo. _Bobby thought as he watched the third son hand it back to his father. "What's the meaning of this, Father?"

The old man silently removed the silk ribbon and gave each of his sons a stick. They all snapped in half easily. "My sons," he addressed, "If you are of one mind, and unite to assist each other, you will be as this bundle, uninjured by all the attempts of your enemies; but if you are divided among yourselves, you will be broken as easily as these sticks."

The words were familiar to Bobby.

"So," Vim started hesitantly as he played with the broken stick. "You're saying that when we're separate, we don't succeed as well when we're together?"

The elder nodded. "You are correct, Vim. In order to help the village from the monsters, you must work together."

Bobby felt a soft breeze and everything froze except the father. He stood and folded his arms into his robes. "Union gives strength. You need to remember this lesson, warrior. If not, in the near future, life would not be very pleasant."

Bobby frowned, thinking of that damn son of Neptune. _Why is my dream telling me advice I don't need. _ He continued, as if he read his mind. "Your wishes can be more possible if you allowed people to help you, despite your…preferences."

Bobby's frown turned to a scowl. "And if I don't let people help me? I can do a better job than most people." After all, he was a son of Mars, god of war, guardian of agriculture and spring. Sometimes, they did better at the gardens than Ceres' children. Out of almost of the other gods, besides Jupiter, Mars was the most worshipped.

The senior looked at Bobby; his dark eyes seemed to be looking into his soul and it creeped him out. "That arrogant attitude does not bode well for your future."

He waved the warning off. "Whatever, if I want to work with people, I will. I'm perfectly fine on my own."

Tilting his head, the man seemed to be listening to something. "Very well, if that is how you choose to use my advice." He bowed. "My creator wishes to see you now."

"Your creator-"The words were cut off as the floor opened. He barely had time to grab the floor as he was sucked through.

1*1*1*1*1*1

Bora wiped the sweat off his forehead. He hated hot places and this one was no different. Stopping under a huge tree, he tried to cool himself down. He had been walking for who knows how long in the heat, looking for Percy and the others.

"I hope I haven't gotten separated from the others. Now that Master Reuven has returned, he might forcibly kick me out." Bora had no idea what he would do if that happened. He couldn't return to Caligula, and then Percy's efforts would be wasted. But he couldn't go to First Legion either, if the group left him. He had no idea where it was, from the snippets of conversations he eavesdropped on; the only real clue he had was that it was somewhere in the West.

The feeling of being watched pulled Bora from his thoughts. Instinctively, he hid himself in a nearby bush, peeking through the leaves and branches; he spotted a lion searching for food.

The lion's pelt was a flawless tan colour and the mane a dark brown. The large cat growled softly and Bora could see the hints of its sharp teeth. He held his breath as he watched the predator walk past him.

He definitely wasn't on the train anymore. Where was he?

Maybe he was dreaming. That would explain the strange environment.

After a few minutes of waiting, (he really didn't want to get eaten by anything else, so sue him) Bora climbed out of the bush and wiped the sweat off his head,

An irrational thought dashed through his train of thought. _What if I followed that lion? After all, it's a dream. If I get hurt, I'll just wake up, right?_

Bora was reminded of that movie a guest had once requested. It was about sleeping and dreams, and he remembered in certain parts, the guy kept mentioned that if they die in the dream, they die in the real world.

He swallowed. The only reason he watched the movie was because the guest had ordered him to hold the bowl of popcorn. Caligula didn't care how his servants were humiliated or treated, as long as they were fit enough to work.

Bora frowned as he remembered the treatment he and his old fellow servants got. He felt awful just leaving them with Master Caligula but they weren't really friends. He was one of the youngest working servants, well, the only one. For some reason, as soon as he was able to walk and talk, Caligula ordered him on the staff. Usually, servants would wait until eight or seven before they joined the 'workforce' but he was different.

He was always different, with his natural snow white hair and cold demeanour. He always preferred being inside and away from people. While other demigod servants didn't want to find their godly parent, he did. Just to know why his mother didn't stop his father from selling him or why she didn't tell him about First Legion. Shouldn't the gods care about their children, even a little bit?

Forcing the resentment down his throat, Bora set after the lion.

A few minutes of wandering, and climbing a tree, he found the lion. It was an achievement for him, considering he was terrified of anything remotely larger than him. He settled for watching the majestic beast. He could never take on something so…scary. He didn't have the skills like Percy or the ferocity of Master Reuven.

The king of the jungle paced around the tree once before curling to sleep. _Crap, now I can't leave the tree without waking up that…thing._

The leaves rustled and Bora froze. He completely forgot that he was in some jungle environment and that there could be snakes in the trees.

Bora considered his options, get eaten by the lion or the snake. The lion would make it extremely painful, clawing out his guts and such, while the snake would crush or suffocate him. The snake could cause him less pain but it would be more prolonged than the claws.

A mouse scampered down the trunk. It was larger than an average mouse but smaller than a rat. Its fur was a grey-brown.

Bora watched the mouse run down the tree. He let out the breath he was holding. If this was he was like when something freaks him out, he was going to die at First Legion.

He tried to control the embarrassment he felt as he watched the mouse climb on the lion. _I'm so pathetic-_

The thought was interrupted by a loud roar. "What are you doing?"

Bora almost fell off the tree from surprise. He flinched instinctively and started to answer before a high pitched voice squeaked out an answer. "M-my lord! Please forgive me!"

The beast paused, holding the mouse above the ground and over his mouth. "Why should I, little rat?"

The mouse squirmed. "I am not a rat! I am a mous-"it stopped when the lion opened his mouth. "I apologize! Please forgive me! I can repay you!"

The lion burst out laughing. To Bora, who was terrified enough already, it sounded like a combination of growling and roaring. "You! One so small, repay me? The King of the Jungle? How preposterous!"

The mouse stopped wriggling around and just hung there, looking defeated.

"The idea is so amusing; I'll let you do it!"

The small creature clapped his paws together. "Oh, thank you, my lord! I will not forget this!" The lion dropped the mouse on the ground and it ran away, not looking back.

"That mouse wouldn't even make a full meal anyways." The lion grumbled as he curled up to go to sleep again.

Bora forgot that he was hanging uncomfortable from the branch. He was surprised that the animals could talk. Just a few minutes ago, they were making animal noises. Animals only talked in stories, movies or TV shows. Bora certainly wasn't in any of them. _This is really just a dream._

There was also the fact the lion dismissed the mouse so easily. It reminded him of how Caligula treated his servants. It annoyed Bora to the point of almost being angry. He never really got angry, severe punishments followed if he got angry. Whether it was shaving all of his white hair off, or burning your clothes, and making you be naked all day, Bora didn't like punishments. He avoided it as much as it can, but there was also the fact that Caligula entertained vulgar guests. Embarrassment and torture followed him everywhere. _Stop thinking about that, I'm not there anymore. No more carrying heavy, tall, luggage or the ugly comments when people found out I can't read._

Bora turned his attention back to the lion. But it wasn't there anymore. He really didn't space out that much, did he? He hoped that lions don't climb trees.

The environment was also different, but not by much. It was hotter and brighter, like early in the day. It made Bora more uncomfortable as he tried to pull himself up. Good thing for him that he had decent upper body strength.

"Where are those freaking antelope?" The deep voice of the lion spoke. Bora stilled and looked down.

The lion had returned and thankfully, he wasn't looking at Bora. He was sniffing the ground and looking everywhere. He took a step toward the tree and Bora heard a faint _click_.

He barely recognized the trap. It was covered in dead grass and dirt.

The lion stepped on the trap, unaware of it. Bora flinched at the surprised roar as the trapped snapped it up and pulled it into the tree, covered in a net.

Bora didn't even breathe as he watched the lion freak out a few feet away from him. The branch shook erratically, causing Bora to almost loose his grip on the branch.

"What happened? What is this contraption?" The lion roared. Bora was half tempted to answer but he didn't want the lion's attention.

The lion stilled as a small voice spoke. "It's a trap, my lord."

Bora turned his head and almost had a heart attack. The mouse from earlier was on his hand, the hand that was in an awkward position. The mouse didn't seem to notice he was on it.

"A trap? What's that?" He growled.

The mouse went on an explanation on traps. If a lion could look pale, the one in front of Bora nailed it. "But do not worry my lord, do you remember me?"

The lion shook his head. The mouse answered. "I was the mouse you graciously saved a week ago."

_A week ago? It was barely two minutes…_

The mouse started to chew through the ropes. "Don't worry your highness. I will let you free."

"But why?" he asked.

The ropes snapped as the weight of the lion strained on fewer and few ropes. When the mouse chewed on the third final rope, the net flipped opened and the lion fell. He landed on the ground with a painful grunt.

The mouse scurried down the tree and stood in front of the lion. "I am simply returning a favour."

The lion tilted his head. "Are you the mouse from before?"

The mouse nodded. "I am. I remember distinctly that you found it incredibly amusing that I wouldn't be able to do anything. But look where we are."

The lion chuckled. "I remember clearly, little mouse. Thank you."

Bora didn't except the lion to act like that. Earlier, he was clearly haughty but now he was humble. He didn't understand that. If Caligula was humiliated like that, the person in question would be killed. The mouse had more courage than Bora would ever have in his entire life time.

Swallowing, he promised himself to be more like the mouse. After all, if a mouse can summon enough courage to bargain with the lion, being brave enough to be of some use should be easy as pie.

Bora was too busy musing to himself to notice how the ground opened to reveal an ominous swirling hole below him. The suction pulled him into the empty space; he didn't even have enough time to blink.

2*2*2*2*2*2

Gwen shook her head and spat out the pebbles and dirt. She looked around in mild confusion. One minute she was watching Percy sleep. The next minute, she was here, with a mouthful of dirt and rocks.

She rubbed her head, instead of feeling the red hair, she felt fur. Startled, she looked at her hand. Instead of a human hand, there was a tiny mouse paw.

She squeaked then covered her mouth. Her normal voice even sounded like a mouse. _Please let this be a dream. Just a weird dream._

There was a small creek near the dirt road and she scamper-_walked_ to it, tripping over her stubby legs and tail. She reached the river and took a deep breath. She had no idea why this was freaking her out so bad, she should be glad that it wasn't a nightmare about the oracle.

The warped reflection of the water showed a little, brown dormouse. Gwen felt her face and the reflection copied her. The only thing she could think of is how Apollo's scared animal is a dormouse.

"This is straight from a Disney movie." She muttered as she bent her ears, ignoring the mild pain. "A stupid, cheesy, inaccurate Disney movie."

Her whiskers twitched and she turned around, almost being trampled on by a hare.

"Hey! Watch where you're going! You almost made me trip." The hare snapped at her.

Gwen wasn't accustomed to backtalk. "Why don't you watch where_ you're_ going, you buck-toothed Carota Vitulamen!"

The hare blinked, its ears flattening against his brown head. "What did you say to me?"

Gwen stood tall, well, as tall as a mouse can get. "Those floppy ears hinder your hearing, rabbit?"

The hare raised a paw. "Why you little-"

"Harry!" Another hare hopped over. "Leave the pipsqueak alone. You have to race against Tort."

Harry sent a scowl toward Gwen. "Fine. But next time I run into you, you're dead." With that, he hopped off, leaving Gwen alone.

_A race with a hare why does that sound familiar? _ "Rabbits are meaner than I thought; I guess I understand the fauns' fear of them."

She was curious about this race and she followed the hares' trail. Her pace was really slow for walking on two feet, plus there were the stares from the other critters as well. _Walking on two legs isn't so simple now._

With her heightened hearing, she heard the cheering of the crowd. _In order to watch this thing properly, I need to get on all four feet…_

The thought of her hands touching the ground repulsed her. To the Apollo Centuria, hands were valuable. They would notch an arrow, feel for a broken limb, shoot baskets or swing baseball bats, write beautiful poetry and even help with singing. It was possibly the worst punishment for an Apollo child if their hands were rendered unusable.

Slowly, she placed her front feet (or hands?) on the ground. The dirt between her paws made her want to wash them frantically but she disregarded the instinct.

Instead, she figured out she didn't have to think about running in a mouse body. It came naturally, maybe because it's her father's animal symbol or just because it was really easy.

Gwen followed the other animals until they stopped and crowded around a line of animals. With her current size, she was easily able to make her way through the much larger animals.

"Come one, come all!" A crow squawked. "Watch two polar opposites race against each other! Tort the Tortoise vs. Harry the Hare! Who will win? Place your bets here!"

Gwen saw that there were other animals racing, but the attention was on the tortoise, who looked calm and the hare, the icon of arrogance. This scenario was so familiar to her, she was getting irritated from the brain fart she was having.

"So, Tort," Harry taunted. "Ready to lose the race? I might lower my speed if you admit defeat right here and now…"

Tort shook his head. "I will not admit defeat until I have truly lost, Harry."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Whatever Tort."

"Racers!" The crow screeched, holding up his wing as a signal. "Are you ready to run?"

"Go!" The bird waved his wing like a flag and all of the other runners, except for Tort, dashed off.

Gwen had never seen a turtle run, so she wasn't surprised that the tortoise was slow. She felt a pinch of pity for the shelled creature and she soon found herself walked besides the animal, which was a bit difficult, considering his slow pace.

"Ah, Hello little mouse, what brings you here?" Tort greeted.

"Um, I was just wondering, Mr Tortoise-"She started

"Please, call me Tort."

"Tort, why are you racing?" Gwen figured that he was asked this question millions of times, but she was curious herself.

"I would like to teach Harry a lesson, little mouse. Whether he knows it or not." Tort's reply held no ill will which surprised Gwen.

"But why and how?"

Tort's eyes glinted with amusement. "You will soon see, Gwen."

"What?-"Instantaneously, the world spun, leaving Gwen dizzy and confused.

She had no idea when she closed her eyes but when she opened them, she was somewhere different. The dirt road was narrower and on the right side of the road, there was a tree, with Harry asleep and snoring.

_Hares snore?_ Gwen slowly looked around and found Tort way ahead of Harry. She scampered to catch up to him, which wasn't hard.

"Hello again, Gwen." He nodded, "How have you been?"

Gwen's mind didn't register the fact he knew her name and she didn't tell him. "What lesson are you trying to teach that hare?"

Tort looked at Gwen with his ancient eyes. The mouse remembered the reason most people thought turtles/tortoises were wise. They looked wise, with their old age and steady pace. "You have not figured it out, Gwendolyn?"

The way Tort said that made Gwen feel a bit stupid. "…no…" She muttered, looking at the dirt.

"His pace, Gwen. His pace is too fast."

She blinked. "How can a pace be too fast? Fast is good, great even."

Tort shook his head. "Sometimes, a fast pace is good, but for some things, it is bad. Can you think of any situation where a slow pace is needed?"

Gwen thought about and she really _thought_ about it. And nothing came up. She shook her head. "I can't think of anything, really."

Tort sighed, "What about your friend, Perseus?"

Gwen blinked. Percy, a friend? She never considered it that way. (And not the other way, mind you.) He was a decent ally, but she really never noticed him any other way.

"He's not my friend," she replied. "And what about him?"

Tort shook his head and looked ahead. She watched as he passed a red line. Where did that line appear from?

"No!" cried Harry, bounding up to the crowd who were cheering for Tort's victory. He shoved Gwen out of the way. "There is no way Tort won!"

Tort looked calmly at the mammal, there was a hint of a smirk on his face. "Slow and steady wins the race, Harry."

Gwen watched all this in silence. She felt compelled to answer Tort's earlier question and his mentioning of Percy.

Being deep in thought distracted the little mouse so much that she didn't even notice a large hole appear under her until the last minute.

Tort turned his head away as Gwen was sucked in.

3*3*3*3*3*3*3

Todd groaned and rubbed his head. "Man, that _hurt._" He looked up and surveyed his surroundings. The sunlight made his eyes water as they turned the blurry images to a forest.

The forest was quiet and unconsciously, Todd pulled a purple beanie hat out of his back pocket and slipped it on.

He stood up and looked around again. The woodland was fairly unkempt except for a small path leading away from the forest.

He wanted to go in the opposite way, toward the wild wood but something told him to watch. Leaning against a tree, he crossed his arms and watched the path.

_What am I supposed to be waiting for? _Todd wasn't impatient per se, but he didn't like doing nothing. He was about to take off his hat when someone tripped in front of him.

The person looked very suspicious, looking around as if expecting someone to follow him. Todd didn't even breath as the person looked him straight in the eye.

"Damn roots, tripping me e'rywhere." The male spoke, taking no notice of the demigod in front of him.

He gave one last glance at Todd before shivering. "This place creeps me out. The faster I get there, the fast I can leave."

He went up the trail leading away from the forest. After a moment's hesitation, Todd followed the guy in the brown tunic.

The road was well worn and simple for Todd to follow. The guy kept looking behind him and picking up his pace.

He forgot what wearing his hat does to people. Oh well.

The male stopped at the edge of a clearing, hiding behind a tree. "One of those is enough for fifty drachmas."

_Drachmas, what the hell is he talking about? _Obviously, the only currency Todd knew was American dollars and Roman Aurei.

Todd followed the gaze of the boy. Ten feet away from them were a dozen beehives with honey practically oozing through the trays. Strangely, there were no bees in sight.

It took a moment for the raven-haired teen to figure out what the boy was doing. _Stealing honeycombs and honey from beehives? That's pretty stupid._

He watched as the boy removed the racks of honeycomb uncured honey. Much to the former's surprise, there wasn't a lot of frames to steal.

By the time the boy had all of them, the sun was low, signalling the afternoon and the bees still haven't returned.

The brown tunic was soaked with nectar and sweat. Todd watched the boy leave with curiosity. Should he follow him or stay here?

_I think I'll stay, if the owner of those hives comes back, I might help him. Or I might not._

No sooner than he thought that, another guy, but in a white tunic, emerged from the woods, scowling. "Damn hunters, with their stupid traps, trappin' my dog."

"The bees haven't returned. That's good. I need to check the honeycombs to see if they're ready to harvest."

Todd kept silent as the keeper headed toward the hives.

Before he even opened them, the man knew something was wrong. "Where are the trays? Someone stole them!"

He glanced around, his eyes settling on Todd for a millisecond and then he looked to the forest, his face paling as he heard something Todd couldn't

The bees returned. And if Todd didn't have a good reason to fear them, he has one now.

They looked pretty terrifying. A black, ominous cloud coming from the opposite direction the boy went, moving in complete sync. And then there was the noise, it felt like he was standing next to one of Hazel's drills. The sound was deafening.

Todd was really glad he was wearing his hat. And that he didn't have apiphobia.

The bees swarmed around the hives, not knowing their homes were ransacked. The way they moved reminded Todd of a bustling city or school. The moment they figured out that their hard work was gone, they surrounded the beekeeper and started attacking without question.

He had seen a lot of things during his time at First Legion. He didn't even have a choice in it, being the camp's 'mortician'. One of his duties, besides keeping track of the major monsters, was taking care of the dead. It wasn't a pretty job, especially after the war, when he was recuperating; he still had to do the work no one else would.

But watching a guy being stung to death was gruesome. Todd couldn't look away though, it was like watching something addicting, and you couldn't look away that easily.

There were millions of bee stings covering almost every square inch of skin possible. The keeper was wheezing, barely able to breathe through his constricted throat.

"Pathetic insects!" He croaked, his voice getting weaker. "Why would you kill me, your caretaker when you let a thief escape pain-free? Not everything is as it seems!"

The keeper cursed in a language Todd didn't understand before he stopped wheezing.

The bees didn't seem to understand the words; they just went back to work, thankfully not noticing Todd.

Something about the whole scenario that seemed familiar; the saying was familiar. Nothing as it seems.

"Why was this in my drea-Whoa!" Todd was pulled through the ground before he could even finish his sentence.

5*5*5*5*5*5*5

Percy groaned and opened his eyes. He rubbed his head as a headache came in full force.

"Percy, you awake?" Gwen whispered, somewhere to his left. It was pitch black. He couldn't even see his own hands.

"Gwen? Where is everyone?"

"Here, dummy." Todd said. He grabbed Percy's arm and helped him up. "You can't see anything?"

Percy started to shake his head then stopped. "No."

"Todd, where are we?" Bobby asked from Percy's right. "This is not some trick that your hat caused?"

He heard Todd move away from him with ease, like he wasn't practically blind. "No, my hat doesn't cause us to move thousands of feet underground without an escape route."

_Ah! Now you're all awake, that's perfect. I love it when my characters do what I want without asking. _

The voice was distinctly masculine, with a hint of a teasing tone like he just made an inside joke. _Now, if you could all walk down the tunnel, I would be happy to answer your questions. Mostly._

"Did you hear that?" Todd asked, looking up at the ceiling. "Or was it just me?"

"I heard it as well." Bora said quietly. He startled Percy a bit when he grabbed his hand. _His hand is really cold._

"Good. Then I'm not going insane yet. The tunnel is this way." He grabbed Percy's shoulder and turned him in the opposite direction. "Just straight ahead."

"How did you know that?" Bobby didn't like that Todd could see and he couldn't. He was at a major disadvantage.

Todd's slightly cold hands grabbed Bobby's shoulder and turned him around. "I can control the earth, duh. If I'm underground in the pitch black, I can see somewhat clearly."

"Somewhat clearly?" Bobby shook the hands off his shoulder. A chill went down his back.

"It's more like infrared vision. I can see your body heat and the earth kind of shimmers."

"That's very useful." Bobby sarcastically remarked. He could see no use of it; it wasn't like he was trapped in the dark every day.

"Shut up Bobby. Or I'll leave you behind."

* * *

The tunnel was surprisingly long and relatively smooth and flat. They walked in a single file line so they wouldn't lose touch of each other. Todd was at the front, leading the way. Bobby was behind him and Gwen stood between Percy and him. Bora held Percy's hand throughout the entire thing. Percy wasn't sure if it was because he was scared or just needed a lead. Either way, his hand was numb from the coldness of the young demigod's hand.

Suddenly, a bright light appeared at the end of the tunnel, momentarily blinding them. The entranceway had led them to an underground library. The walls were made of red-brown rock and there were huge stacks of books everywhere. Some were lined up and others were placed on top of each other, or in patterns.

Percy sensed that the blonde girl would've liked this. A place full of books, with the possibility of learning new things. He felt a pang in his heart.

"Oh good! You made it without getting lost!" The voice from before called from above. Percy looked up. Floating on a pile of books was a rather young teenager. His figure flickered like a holographic image. His hair was a messy, blonde haystack of pens, bookmarks and bits of paper. He had a rather thin face with bags under his light blue eyes, like he forgot to eat and sleep like other people forget their chores. He wore red pyjama pants, blue fuzzy slippers and a black shirt that said 'Annoy me and the protagonist dies.'

"What does your shirt say?" Gwen asked. Percy looked at her, couldn't she read it? Even with her dyslexia?

The boy smiled. "Ahh. You're Roman. Well, most of you." He looked at Percy when he said this.

"And you're implying that you're not?" Bobby asked a hint of a challenge in his voice.

"Oh dear." The boy turned toward Bobby. The books in the floating pile opened and closed, like someone was sifting through them. "You have bad characteristics."

Bobby's face flushed at the insult but before he could respond the boy looked at Gwen. "Pretty hair, low sense of quality. Oh!" He smiled. "I love a good love quarrel!"

He moved to Todd. His blue eyes lit with a light that made Percy worry. "My, my. I give kudos to Juno for picking this one. A strong, almost fatal flaw worthy, sense of jealousy."

Todd stood there, not showing any emotion. Though his eyes indicated that he was angry at this guy for pointing out the flaws.

Bora didn't make eye contact as he looked at him. "Love the hair. Hate the blind loyalty."

Finally, he turned to Percy. The gaze was on him longer than the others. He smiled a bit. "I'm sure Neptune couldn't have picked a better mother. Though, your neutrality will hinder you."

"Now that you're done insulting us," Percy replied. "Can you tell us who are you?"

The boy frowned and picked up a book from the air casually. He skimmed through it. "My fables weren't enough? How much as society degraded in the past centuries? When I was alive, people would recognize me just by looking at me."

"So you're an actor?" he guessed.

The books floating in the air stopped instantly and turned their direction toward him like birds. "Pah! Don't even associate me with them! Horrible, horrible group of people. Impersonating characters. What a disgrace!"

Percy swallowed, unsure if the books would start attacking him and giving him paper cuts. "I'll check off actor as a list of future jobs."

"Good! No more guesses? How about you, Son of Mars? Can your tiny brain figure out who am I?"

Bobby looked at the boy with such a glare that looked eerily like the glares from a wolf. "A writer, from the looks of it. With all the books and notebooks."

Gwen looked at the young teenager. He probably wasn't much older than fourteen and yet she recognized him from somewhere. "You're…Aesop? I think I saw your picture in my mythological monsters book."

Aesop brightened. "I am! I hope you cherish that book, I almost died getting all that information."

"Aesop? I imagined him to be older, more of an old guy." Todd noted.

Aesop scowled, though the books kept moving and switching places in the pile. "Modern times. Back in my time, you could do anything and it didn't matter how timeworn you were!"

"Timeworn?" Percy asked.

"Another word for old." Gwen explained. "So you wrote all those fables and stories? And we were in them?" That clarified why they felt so familiar to her.

Bitterness filled the storyteller's features. "No, I could not do it on my own, after a period of time; my fables grew out of my control. Whatever fable you were in, I had no control over it. Those fables are living things now, doing this according to their morale. I just wanted you here. Aesop was the pseudonym for my fellow siblings and authors. I wrote most of the fables though, while on my travels."

"Aesop was a group of demigods?" Percy asked. The way Aesop said it; it was like mortals didn't do anything amazing.

Aesop nodded and opened a book, turning the pages slowly, as if he was remembering the moments on the paper. "My relations didn't want to be part of the natural demigod way. All that destroying and fighting. We wanted to follow in our mother's footsteps and create stories. Oh, the fun times we had…"

He looked so deflated that Percy wanted to cheer him up. He had no idea how to cheer up a writer. They usually cheered everyone else up with their writing.

"Your mother?" Bora asked slowly. "Who was she?"

"Mnemosyne. Goddess of memory, words and language."

"I don't want to seem rude. But why did you take us from the train?" Gwen hesitantly asked.

Aesop blinked. "Obviously, you guys have something I want."

Todd didn't think they had anything of interest for a famous writer as far as he knew. "No fancy pens or paper here, sorry."

Aesop ignored him. He opened a book and started writing in it. His voice turned hypnotic and desolate, describing the scene he was writing. _"Rome was dying in front of her eyes. The fire burned through everything, destroying a civilization thousands of years old and she was the cause of it. It almost destroyed her to something against her very nature. And if the damn Romans were right. She would be killed the moment she returned to Cali-"_

"Whoa. Whoa." Todd held his hands out in a gesture that said 'Slow down'. "Old Rome is going to burn?" His tone was filled with disgust and anger. "Who's going to burn Rome?"

The Romans in the group did not look happy about that, Percy noted. He felt bad for the girl who did it. It was the first time he saw them really angry, almost to the point of furious.

Aesop didn't answer and Bobby pulled out his sword, pointing it at him. "Who is going to burn Rome? She won't live for long. Tell me her name!"

The fable writer looked at the blade. _"The blade turned into a quill."_

As soon as the words were out, Bobby's gladius turned into a bright red quill. "Don't threaten a writer. They can do almost anything with characters."

The cheerful mood had disappeared for good. Aesop looked at Percy "Cutting to the climax. I want your curse."

All of the demigods besides Gwen looked at him with suspicion. "What curse?" Bobby asked his voice low.

Aesop smirked and wrote something down. "More conflict! Perfect! Didn't Gwen tell you? Secrecy always accompanies quarrels. I love it!"

Bobby sent an accusing glare at Percy. "You made her keep a secret?"

Gwen sighed and looked at Bobby. "He didn't make me. In Hawaii, we discovered that Percy has the Curse of Achilles, he can't be killed except for a vital part."

"And you didn't tell us?" Bobby's voice was full of disgust. "That's important-"

"Bobby, I'm sure they had reasons for not telling us. He's trying to get another conflict between you and Percy." Todd interrupted, trying to calm Bobby down, though he didn't look pleased either.

Percy watched Aesop as Gwen explained. He looked exceptionally smug and satisfied. "We had decided that it was the best way to go at the moment."

"The best way for whom? If we're going to cooperate, we need to know stuff, Gwen." Todd spoke stopping Bobby from speaking. _If he speaks, who knows what would happen. _Todd really wasn't that mad, but he knew Bobby needed someone on his side or Tartarus would break lose even more.

Gwen opened her mouth then closed it. "Percy. It was the best for Percy. For some reason, he's important and if he dies…"

Percy glanced at Bobby then at Gwen. He almost wished that he wasn't here to ruin a relationship but he had the feeling Gwen was seeing a different side of Bobby.

"Well, this would be a perfect time for some privacy." Aesop chirped. Percy swore that the guy was bipolar. One moment he was bitter and resentful, the next, he was happy and cheerful. He snapped his fingers and a tornado of paper surrounded everyone besides Percy. With a wave of his hand, the tornado flew deeper in the library.

"Now that we're away from the heavy influence of the awful Romans, we Greeks can talk peacefully."

Percy stared at Aesop. Greek? Was that who he was? He remembered how hated the Greeks were back at camp. "Greek?"

Aesop rolled his eyes. "Don't tell me you haven't figured that out yet. Didn't you see the signs? You address the gods by their true names, spoke-well cursed in Ancient Greek, you fought differently, even you didn't want to take a life and you read my shirt which is written in Ancient Greek. Very un-Roman."

"How do you know that?" Percy couldn't deny the feeling of relief. It made sense, the way Aesop said it. It was like a piece of the puzzle of figuring out who he is had been added.

"My mother was Mnemosyne, goddess of memory. Hera resurrected me for the sole purpose of keeping your and that Roman's memory."

"Y-You have my memory?" Percy was shocked and excited.

Aesop smiled slyly. "Hera wanted me to keep it until you earned it on your own, but that subplot was so _boring_ and I won't be here for long without a body."

Realization dawned on Percy. "That's why you want my curse. You're Fading."

Aesop winced when the words were spoken. "I am, even with Hera's power. The damn mortals and their lack of creativity. I use to inspire great epics and tales. Now I'm used a teaching method for ignorant kids who don't even follow my advice!"

He felt a twinge of sympathy for the guy. He started out great and ended up underground, almost forgotten.

"What would my curse do for you?" Percy watched a fountain pen start writing on a blank piece of paper. Aesop looked at it and shook it head, crumpling the paper.

"The Curse of Achilles doesn't just give fighting prowess. It almost guarantees a life. I don't want to fade. That would mean no more fantastic authors like J.K. Rowling and Rick Riordan. Almost all of the stories now are about stupid vampires. I hate it!" He grabbed a book and threw it against the wall where it exploded in a flurry of torn paper.

Percy felt that the kid wasn't telling him something. The back of his neck tingled in warning.

"I can see in your features I'm not convincing you enough. How about a trade?"

"Go on."

Aesop picked up a book on his pile. It was a sea-green. It looked like it hadn't been open. He opened it and the pages spewed black smoke for a moment. He nodded to himself and placed a quill in the page before closing it. "This is your memory. Everything from your first time riding a bike to the day Hera took you."

_A book. Great, I actually have to read this time. _Aesop continued. "Just place the bookmark anywhere and the memory will return."

Percy looked at the book warily. "What's the catch?"

"The book will not be destroyed. If this falls into the wrong hands, they could control you with any means."

"So if I give you my curse, you'll give me my memory, free of charge?" This deal sounded too good to be true. His memory, for a stupid curse? The idea was incredibly tempting. He could figure out who the blonde was and where he came from.

His instinct reminded him not to trust ghosts. At first they seemed good, but ended up being bad for selfish reasons. He studied Aesop with narrowed eyes. He remembered Nico telling him one time that ghosts would do anything to be back in the mortal world.

Was it worth it? His memory will return in time, so why hurry? This curse was far more useful than a book full of memories. Memories wouldn't help him survive again Gaea and the Romans.

Percy also acknowledged the fact he craved to know who the blonde girl was and his relationship with her. He was head over heels in love with a girl he didn't even know yet. Even though she probably didn't know it. The girl had heavy influence over him. A part of him told him that the girl wouldn't be happy if she knew this.

He never felt this conflicted before. The curse had saved his life numerous times so far, but the memories might provide information how to keep surviving and possibly help his relations with First Legion even though he was Greek.

In the end, Percy decided. "Deal. I'll give you my curse in exchange for my memories. On one condition."

Aesop smiled like he won the lottery.

* * *

The paper tornado returned with his friends intact.

"I hope you succeed in filling your duty, Percy Jackson. I look forward to how your story ends."

Todd looked at Percy curiously, noting the book in his possession. "What did you do?"

"Something I hope that won't backfire in my face. Remember, your part of the deal, Aesop."

Aesop nodded eagerly. "Of course. An author is a person of his words. The next time you wake up, you'll be in Gila Claw."

Aesop snapped his fingers and another paper tornado surrounded them, creating a deafening wall of paper.

Though the papers and books, Percy could've sworn that he saw Aesop smile mischievously, his form more solid than when they arrived. "Your story will be very interesting, Percy Jackson. I do love tragedies."

* * *

**Blah, blah blah. I've been gone for two months. *inserts useless excuses here* School, life, lack of muses. The whole piece of cake. (Why I mention cake because my birthday was on the twenth-seventh of September. I can use magic in the Muggle world now!)**

**You can thank _The Son of Neptune_ for the completion of this chapter. I had to wait until the twentieth to get my copy. (signed and limited edition. It's so beautiful.) It was uber hard not to read the spoilers. But i did it. Absolutely loved the story. Though i couldn't help but notice the similarities between my story and TSON (though, what author of any TSON-esque fiction wouldn't compare?) I was kind of surprised this story had commonalities with TSON. (Though this is just me.) **

**NaNoWriMo is coming up. And for those of you who don't know what it is. Basically, you write a 50,000 word novel in one month. This year, I decided on doing the sequel to this fanfic. _Second Legion. _ A summary and crappy cover are available on the official NaNoWriMo site. (Google it or go to my profile. Links are there.) My username is InsomniacDreamer0515. Feel free to add me. I'm also on the NaNoWriMo Young Writer's Program. (Same username). As I'm working on the sequel, I'll put up little excerpts to tease you guys.**

**That also means there might not be another chapter until December/January. (Only three more chapters to go!)**

**The reviews please me and it seems very few of you like Bobby. Just tolerate him through three more chapters and he won't appear for a while.**

**So, how was this chapter? Good, bad, somewhat decent? Did you expect Aesop, or like him? Tell me in a review! (Currently, this chapter is un-Beta'd since my Beta went AWOL on me at the moment. So I apologize for any grammar/sentence issues)**

**Reviewer Question: What did you think of _The Son of Neptune_? or have you read Aesop's fables and can list the ones I used? **

**I wished Rick would've written at least one more chapter...now it's another year until _The Mark of Athena_ comes out. He better provide a LOT of Percabeth...**

**Remember, reviews makes lovely presents for my inbox!**

**PPS: I haz a twitter now. Add me and nag me about stuff and updates. (Link in profile.)**

**-The Scribe**


	15. THE DREADED AUTHOR'S NOTE

So…hello to anyone out there, it's been a long long time.

And to be honest, I still love this fic so much but let's face the harsh true.

Please stand right…here and face that way. Yes, good. Now you're facing the truth.

This fanfiction might never be finished.

And yes, it's the usual excuses. Life, slightly loss of interest, laziness and computer problems.

But I won't leave you hanging! Oh no. Well, unless you want me too.

Since I was semi-smart about this fic, I actually planned the ending and its other sequel _Second Legion_. And I have two documents with outtakes and various snippets. If you guys want, I can post how this story ends and the outlines of _Second Legion._

Or, if you guys rally enough, I may actually continue this. (I have doubts about this. I have no problem finishing if you guys really want it. School (I'm a senior! Gotta get into dem colleges) and my novel are going to get in the way. Guarantee.)

But _The Son of Neptune _and _The Mark of Athena _are out, and I'm not sure you guys would still be interested in a TSON/MOA story and I will admit, I may take parts from TSON and MOA and put them in possible future chapters. You guys may or may not like that.

**NOTE: I have not read **_**Mark of Athena**_** and I won't for about two weeks. So, anything that happens in **_**Second Legion**_** is purely coincidental. (Probably three fourths of you won't believe this but I swear on the River Styx it's true.)**

So yeah, _First Legion_ and I will be on indefinite hiatus.

I will miss you all. Your reviews made my day.

If you want to continue contact with me. My tumblr username is ScribeofStories and so is my Twitter. My deviantART is IntendedChaos1256, Nanowrimo account is InsomniacDreamer0515.

Ciao, Scribe of Stories


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